March 2026
As governments around the world seek to boost clean vehicles and improve vehicle fuel economy, they are increasingly relying on supply-side regulations. These policy approaches include fuel economy standards, emission standards, and zero-emission vehicle sales requirements, typically paired with credit and/or credit trading systems. Policymakers have chosen them as a mechanism to meet myriad goals, including to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and decrease fuel consumption.
To answer the question of why supply-side regulations are a preferred policy tool for meeting these environmental and economic objectives and accelerating the deployment of clean vehicles, CLEE mapped out which jurisdictions have adopted them and detailed the arguments supporting their adoption that may be persuasive to policy makers. Our new report has a specific focus on the impact of these policies on zero-emission trucks, due to their public health and environmental impacts, and also addresses the concerns that may prevent some policy makers from supporting their adoption.
Among the key reasons governments adopt supply-side regulations, these policies can:
- ensure that automakers invest in new clean technologies when market forces otherwise favor incumbent technologies
- create market certainty, which accelerates investment in clean technologies
- encourage the development of supportive fueling infrastructure, such as electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen stations and battery manufacturing
- can create self-financing markets without reliance on public funding
- can support the global competitiveness of local industry and create jobs
- reduce fossil fuel dependency, generating savings for consumers and improving energy security
In support of the adoption of these policies, many jurisdictions with these policies tend to feature coordinated coalitions of civil society groups, environmental and labor organizations, academic experts and pro-regulatory industry actors that engage directly in supply-side regulation rulemaking to provide important information and political support.
Read the full report: Supply-Side Regulations to Accelerate Clean Truck Deployment
Contact for more information: Chloé F. Smith and Ethan Elkind