Abstract

This article analyzes NEPI's (New Environmental Policy Instruments) role in tackling the tradeoff between two policy sectors - the energy sector and the environmental sector - in developing countries. This paper includes a brief introduction and it is structured in three parts. The first section takes an empirical approach to explain the tradeoff between energy and environmental sectors by analyzing official data. The second section, taking a neo-institutionalism stance, explores NEPI's potential to reconcile the goals of ambivalent sectors by opening ways for alternative regulation mechanisms. The third section considers REDD+ as a NEPI to argue theoretically how institutions can advance towards synergies and symbiotic relationships. Lastly, it concludes that institutions could carry out alternative regulation mechanisms focused on the interdependence between innovation's niches and governments.