Call for Papers for a Special Issue “Competition and the Environment: Competition Policies Facing the Challenges of the Ecological Transition”
Decarbonisation objectives, the fight against climate change, the growing scarcity of natural resources, and the imperatives of the ecological transition are profoundly transforming the conditions under which markets operate, the strategies pursued by firms, and the instruments of public policy. These transformations raise fundamental questions for industrial economics and competition policy: how can effective competition be preserved while enabling the investments required for the ecological transition? Under what conditions can cooperation between firms contribute to environmental objectives without turning into an unjustified restriction of competition? How should the environmental effects of anticompetitive practices, mergers, or public policies supporting specific sectors be assessed?
These questions have become particularly salient in the recent European context. The new Guidelines on Horizontal Cooperation Agreements now devote specific attention to sustainability agreements. They illustrate the willingness to articulate environmental objectives more explicitly with the traditional principles of competition law, including the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements, the control of abuses of dominant position, merger control, and the regulation of State aid. This evolution does not, however, eliminate the associated analytical and normative tensions. Taking environmental benefits into account raises issues concerning measurement, time horizons, the distribution of gains, consumer welfare, and the legitimacy of trade-offs between competition objectives and climate objectives.
Following the workshop Competition under Environmental Challenges, organised in Nice on 27 November 2025 by Université Côte d’Azur, MSH Sud-Est, and GREDEG CNRS, the Revue d’économie industrielle invites submissions for a special issue devoted to the interactions between competition, competition policy, and environmental challenges. Contributions presented at the workshop are naturally welcome, but the call is open to all research falling within this broad theme, whether grounded in industrial economics, competition law, environmental economics, public economics, innovation economics, or interdisciplinary approaches.
Submissions may address, among others, the following themes.
1. Sustainability Agreements, Horizontal Cooperation, and Competition Risks
Agreements between firms may foster research and development, standardisation, cost sharing, information exchange, or the diffusion of environmental standards. They may also restrict competition, reduce output, increase prices, or serve as a cover for collusive behaviour. Contributions may examine the conditions under which environmental cooperation can be regarded as pro-competitive or socially desirable, as well as the limits of any potential “green exemption” under the law on anticompetitive agreements.
2. Merger Control, Market Power, and the Ecological Transition
Mergers and acquisitions may affect incentives to invest in green innovation, reshape the structure of eco-industries, transform access to essential infrastructures, or influence the pace at which clean technologies are disseminated. Contributions may examine how competition authorities can incorporate environmental effects into competitive assessment, whether in the evaluation of efficiencies, dynamic effects, remedies, or risks of technological lock-in.
3. Cartels, Environmental Harm, and Competition Law Liability
Certain anticompetitive practices may have direct or indirect environmental effects, for instance when they delay the adoption of less polluting technologies, limit competition on environmental quality, or hinder green innovation. Contributions may address the identification, measurement, and compensation of such environmental harm, as well as the methods through which these effects can be incorporated into the assessment of economic and social damages.
4. Public Procurement, State Aid, and Green Industrial Policies
Green public procurement, State aid, innovation subsidies, policies supporting renewable energy, and sectoral transition schemes are central instruments of environmental policy. Yet they also raise classic issues in industrial economics: effects on entry, competition between technologies, firm selection, risks of capture, competitive distortions, and the effectiveness of incentives. Contributions may analyse these instruments from theoretical, empirical, or institutional perspectives.
5. Energy, Transport, Recycling, and Transition Industries
Sectors directly affected by the ecological transition — including energy, transport, mobility, recycling, the circular economy, infrastructures, critical materials, and related industries — provide particularly relevant settings for analysing the relationship between competition and the environment. Contributions may study the effects of competition on decarbonisation, investment incentives, prices, access to infrastructures, the industrial organisation of green value chains, or trade-offs between productive efficiency, resilience, and climate objectives.
6. Comparative Perspectives and Transformations of Competition Law
The extent to which environmental considerations are incorporated into competition policies varies significantly across jurisdictions. Contributions may compare European, US, and national approaches, notably with respect to sustainability agreements, ESG commitments, the role of competition authorities, case law, or policy debates concerning the legitimacy of objectives that are not strictly competition-related. Particular attention may be paid to divergences between economic, legal, and institutional approaches.
7. Evaluation Methods and the Boundaries of Welfare
Integrating environmental concerns into competitive analysis raises significant methodological challenges. How should environmental benefits be measured? How should short-term effects on prices be balanced against long-term effects on innovation or emissions? How should externalities, future generations, or collective benefits that extend beyond the relevant market be taken into account? Methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions addressing these questions are particularly encouraged.
This special issue welcomes contributions using a wide range of approaches: theoretical modelling, empirical analysis, case studies, institutional approaches, international comparisons, legal analysis, and interdisciplinary work. Articles may be submitted in either French or English. All selected contributions will be evaluated according to the standard review procedure of the Revue d’économie industrielle.
Important Dates and Submission Procedure
30 October 2026: deadline for submission of full papers through the journal’s online platform.
Articles, written in either French or English, must be submitted in accordance with the instructions for authors of the Revue d’économie industrielle. Authors should log in at:
https://revue-economie-industrielle.fr
and ensure that they select the dedicated section “Competition and the Environment” when submitting their manuscript.
Special Issue Editors and Contacts
For any information regarding the special issue, authors may contact the editors:
Patrice Bougette, patrice.bougette@univ-cotedazur.fr
Christophe Charlier, christophe.charlier@univ-cotedazur.fr
Frédéric Marty, frederic.marty@univ-cotedazur.fr
References
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Alé-Chilet, J., Chen, C., Li, J., & Reynaert, M. (2026). “Colluding Against Environmental Regulation.” The Review of Economic Studies, 93(1), 35–71.
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