Why should support schemes for renewable electricity complement the EU emissions trading scheme?

► The EU ETS addresses policy objectives appropriately under narrow assumptions only. ► Deviations from these assumptions may justify RES-E support schemes. ► First rationale: technology choices are distorted by market and policy failures. ► These failures are aggravated and perpetuated by socio-technical path dependencies. ► Second rationale: RES-E schemes address goals beyond mitigating climate change.