Renewable Energy Law and Policy covers the aspects of most renewable energy deals, including issues pertaining to structuring, real estate, finance, land use, contracts, environmental, corporate, tax, and securities law. As this nascent industry matures, and technology makes it increasingly more efficient to create electricity from the sun, wind, and geothermal resources, lawyers have begun seeing an increase in questions from landowners, project developers and non-renewable energy producers that are looking to grow in, or break into, the renewable energy sector. Legislators have also taken notice of the unprecedented potential and real growth over the last decade. This book helps practitioners, students, and laypeople navigate the complex and ever changing landscape of this new area of law. It was written to help the reader deal with this evolving reality by explaining the dynamics of the industry and the existing and developing regulatory and competitive environment. Among the important areas addressed are the following: • Legal and policy issues that impact the development, implementation and commercialization of renewable energy projects. • Structuring, land use, siting, and finance issues encountered by developers of renewable energy projects. • Investing in renewable energy projects. • Renewable energy development in other countries. • Building a renewable energy project. • Selling renewable energy. • Tips for drafting and negotiating key renewable energy documents.
The aim of this short text is simply to introduce a reader to this topic. It is intended for a global audience and rather than being restricted to potential energy law students of a particular country. It is also written for students of other disciplines such as geographers, social scientists and engineers. It should also be engaging to those in a variety of professional practices who want an accessible background to and overview of the subject. The first edition of Energy Law: An Introduction was a great success and this extended second edition is expected to be just as successful. It is used widely as a core text in energy law courses across the world and this second issue adds further discussion on important topics such as energy law principles and drivers. Further, it highlights issues of energy justice, a growing and an emergent topic which is also at the core of the energy law principles and the key drivers of why new energy law is formulated. The text aims to outline the principles and central logic behind energy law. Therefore, readers from across the world should be able to use it as a guide to thinking about energy law in their own countries. A variety of examples from many different countries are included in the text and while examples and comparisons are mainly from the EU and US, they represent good examples of more advanced and innovative energy law. For those readers who seek further or more in-depth knowledge, this text will only serve as an introduction. However, a key focus of the book is to direct the reader where they to look for further information and within the book there are suggested extra readings, the key recommended journals to read and other sources of information based on institutions who publish further material in this area. Overall this second edition of Energy Law: An Introduction aims to inspire students and others to contribute to try and improve energy law across the world and enable us all to contribute in our own small way to delivering a just and sustainable energy world for future generations.
This book investigates the role of law in enabling and addressing the barriers to the development of off-grid renewable electricity (OGRE). The limited development of OGRE is ascribed to a host of social, economic, and legal barriers, including the problem of initial capital costs, existing subsidies for conventional electricity, and lack of technological and institutional capacity. Through the analyses of selected case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America, this book discusses the typical barriers to the development of OGRE from a global perspective and examines the role of the law in addressing them. Drawing together the lessons learnt from the case studies, this book offers robust recommendations on how the development of OGRE will support the goal of achieving universal access to low carbon, reliable, and sustainable electricity globally. This volume will be of great interest to students, scholars, policy makers, investors, and practitioners in the fields of energy law and policy, climate change, and renewable energy development.
This open access book provides a topical overview of the key sustainability issues in Qatar, focusing on environmental sustainability from a socio-political perspective. The transition to a sustainable Qatar requires engagement with diverse areas of social-political, human, and environmental development. On the environmental aspects, the contributors address climate change, food security, water reuse and desalination, energy, and biodiversity. The socio-political section examines state strategy and regulation, the place of environmental law and geopolitics and sustainability innovators and catalysts. The human section considers economics, sustainability education, the knowledge economy, and waste management. In doing so, the book demarcates the ways in which the country encounters and grapples with significant challenges and delves into the range of options for future pathways to sustainability in Qatar. Relevant to policymakers and scholars in energy and environment, urban and developmental studies, as well as the arenas of politics, climate change and policy, this book is a landmark collection on environmental policy in the Gulf and beyond.
This meticulously revised second edition provides a comparative overview of climate change mitigation issues and international regulatory approaches, bringing together expert contributors to analyse key sectors such as energy, transport, cities, industry, land use, agriculture and waste.
This book is about environmental and climate legal protection in the energy transition. The Paris Agreement has a binding commitment of holding the global temperature increase to 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. To cope with the negative effects of climate changes and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, one of the primary responses has been the deployment of renewable energy sources, transiting from fossil fuels to sustainable electricity production. However, renewable energy sources can also cause significant environmental impacts. Wind energy, for instance, can impact biodiversity, such as birds and bats, killing them when colliding with turbines and affecting their migration and nesting. This results in conflicts in environmental law. This book questions whether, in the energy transition, the generation of electricity from renewable sources to protect the climate is compatible with the protection of the environment, both interests in environmental law. To address this question, this book follows a legal-environmental perspective and assesses the common problem of solving those internal environmental conflicts in Brazilian and German law to understand and compare whether and how both legal systems solve the conflicts by compatibilizing the protection of the climate with other environmental interests. The legal analysis focuses on land-use planning and environmental licensing, assessing similarities and differences, and evaluating the results, identifying what one country can learn from the other.
This book focuses on the current situation of two technologies for electricity production from renewable energy sources, wind and solar photovoltaic energy, analysing and describing both technologies in detail. Four regions of the world, with distinct energy markets and conditions, are explored. Together, the USA, Europe, China and Japan represent one third of the world’s population and occupy 25% of the planet, therefore offering a representation of a global picture. In each of these regions, the development of the solar and wind energy is examined, and the economic implications are described.
This book explores current developments in the African energy sector and highlights how these are likely to be affected by the ongoing global efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy. It analyses the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks at the national and regional level as they relate to Energy transition in Africa and discusses how regionalism is increasingly utilized to tackle energy access and climate change challenges. Using case studies from across the continent, several key thematic issues, including gender justice, social license to operate, local content and conflict of energy laws are covered in detail. The authors also uniquely examine the progressive nature of global energy use and introduce the new concept of ‘Energy Progression.’ This book will be an invaluable reference for researchers and policymakers looking for a comprehensive overview of the field.
This book examines the contemporary and contentious question of the critical connections between business and human rights, and the implementation of socially responsible norms in developing countries, with particular reference to Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa. Business enterprises and transnational corporate actors operate in a complex global environment, especially when operating in high risks sectors such as oil and gas, mining, construction, banking, and health care amongst others. Understanding human rights responsibilities, impacts and socially responsible behaviour for companies is therefore an essential component of corporate risk management in our current world. The release of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, an instrument consisting of 31 principles on this issue, has further underscored the emergence of a rapidly developing set of international law norms on human rights responsibilities of businesses and transnational corporations. It has also shaped the discourse on corporate accountability for human rights. In addition to minimizing litigation, financial and reputational risks, understanding and demonstrating corporate respect for human rights is vital to building a culture of trust and integrity amongst local communities, investors, and shareholders. While Africa has been at the receiving end of deleterious activities of corporate actors, it has failed to address corporate impunity and human rights violations by non-state actors. Questions abound revolving around the underpinnings of a corporate responsibility to respect human rights, that is, how non-western and particularly African conceptions of respect may help develop a ‘beyond do no harm’ approach to respect; policy discourses on human rights due diligence, human rights impact assessment; mandating corporate respect for human rights in both domestic and international law. This book examines, clarifies, and unpacks the guiding principles of a rights-based approach to development and social inclusion. It offers an excellent exposition of regulatory capacity, institutional efficacy and democratic legitimacy of governance institutions that shape development including a comprehensive analysis of how states are shaping business and human rights discourses locally to develop a critical understanding of identified issues by exploring the latest theories through comparative lenses
This Research Handbook offers crucial ethical perspectives on navigating the increasingly complex and contested landscape of contemporary energy law. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it brings together diverse scholarship and expertise from academia, international organizations, legal practice and the judiciary to address wide-ranging issues linking energy and law to ethical drivers such as wealth, peace and war, development, climate change, and use and abuse of natural resources.
Bringing together leading experts from across the UK and Europe, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Brexit on the energy sector in the UK and in the European Union and its Member States. In recent decades, the trend within the EU has been towards greater integration and liberalisation of energy markets. Through the development of the Union’s internal energy market and the funding of cross-border energy infrastructure, EU membership facilitates cross-border trade in energy, promotes security of energy supply, and, via the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), allows EU Member States to trade in nuclear material for energy production. Brexit changes all of this. The significant level of integration and interdependence in EU energy policy means that the UK’s departure from the Union poses many challenges for the UK, the EU, and EU Member States. While certain energy-related arrangements have been addressed, the relationship between the UK and EU in the energy sector has been changed fundamentally. In this context, important and interrelated questions arise, such as the following: Under what terms will energy trading between the EU and UK now take place? What access will the UK have to EU energy markets? What does Brexit mean for the security of energy supply? What does the UK’s departure from Euratom mean for nuclear research? Can the crossborder single energy market (SEM) on the island of Ireland continue following Brexit? What implications does Brexit have for renewables, the environment, and climate change? Brexit comes at a time when the European energy sector is undergoing the processes of decarbonisation and energy transition. This book offers researchers, legal practitioners, and policy advisers in-depth understanding of the interplay between these challenges and Brexit.
