Labour-market institutions and regulations need to address these issues. Institutions comprise laws, rules and established social and cultural practices that affect incentives and behaviour (Edquist, 1997),5 such as patent laws, cap-and-trade systems and regulations. As elsewhere in the G-NIS, there should be two-way relationships between these elements and the rest of the system. Domestic institutions and existing infrastructure set incentives and affect how the actors behave. Infrastructural or institutional rigidities that arise can hamper innovation. Such policies treat green economy activities as “infant industries”, requiring appropriate support, including regulatory requirements, government procurement, subsidies (preferably performance-related and time-bound), access to credit and, possibly, some level of trade protection, as discussed in chapter VI.