International Law And Renewable Energy Investment In The Global South

This book will discuss the legal tools offered by international law that can support foreign direct investment (FDI) in the renewable energy sector in the Global South. Promoting and increasing investment in the renewable energy sector is crucial for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C and addressing energy poverty in the Global South. In this volume, Avidan Kent explores the various home-country measures (HCMs) offered by international law that support FDI in the renewable energy sector. This book provides a bird’s eye evaluation of HCMs from fields such as trade law, investment law, environmental law, development law and more. It reveals that while international law indeed offers many legal tools to support investors’ needs, the current legal framework is fragmented; most legal instruments were designed in isolation and the potential for mutually supportive, synergetic policies has been explored only to a limited extent. This fragmented reality is in contradiction to the notion of Policy Coherence for Development, which is increasingly gaining support in leading institutions in Europe and elsewhere. This book will provide recommendations on the manner in which HCMs can be connected in order to maximise their potential and boost investment in renewable energies in the developing world. International Law and Renewable Energy Investment in the Global South will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners of international law, energy studies, development studies and IR more broadly.

International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability provides a clear and concise insight into the relationship between the institutions that govern foreign investment, sustainable development and the rules and regulations that administer natural resources. In this book, several leading experts explore different perspectives in how investment and natural resources come together to achieve sustainable development in developing countries with examples from water, oil and gas, renewable energy, mineral, agriculture, and carbon trading. Despite varying perspectives, it is clear that several themes are central in considering the linkages between natural resources, investment and sustainability. Specifically, transparency, good governance and citizen empowerment are vital conditions which encourage positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for developing countries. In addition, this book provides new insights into key concepts which underpin international law, including sovereign rights and state responsibility principles. It is clear from this book that in the attempt to reconcile these concepts and principles from separate legal regimes, complex policy questions emerge whereby it is difficult to attain mutually beneficial or succinct outcomes. This book explores how countries prioritise their policy objectives to achieve their notion of sustainable natural resource use, which is strongly influenced by power imbalances that inform North–South cooperation, as well as South–South cooperation in the international investment regime. This book will be of great interest to students, academics and researchers of international environmental law, international human rights law, international investment law and international economic law. This book may also be of relevance to environmentalists, policy-makers, NGOs, and investors working in the natural resources field.

In A Multifaceted Approach to Trade Liberalisation and Investment Protection in the Energy Sector, Elena Cima and Makane Moïse Mbengue assess different approaches to bridge the gap between economic and non-economic considerations in the regulation of international energy trade and investment.

Half the worlds new electric generating capacity added each year from 2008 onwards has been renewable, mainly now in developing countries. So is the quarter-trillion dollars a year of private investment in modern renewable energy. Organizations like REN21 and Bloomberg New Energy Finance track exciting and accelerating recent progress. But to understand how these renewable energy efforts in major developing countries have been structured and are evolving requires a guidebook with a legal and institutional perspective. Energy veteran Richard Ottinger and his Pace Law School graduate students from many key countries have now provided that guideclearly written, well-organized, and a great public service. Amory B. Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, US Richard Ottinger, a pioneer in the development of national policy to promote renewable energy in the US, and his Pace Law School research assistants have created a unique piece of work on the legal and policy issues behind the global growth of renewable energy. Their book is indispensable as a text for law professors and students and as the definitive reference for lawyers and policymakers about developing and emerging country policies driving renewable energy use around the world. The fact that most of the research assistants are natives of the countries on which they researched and wrote their respective chapters gives the book uniquely credible insights into the legal and policy challenges faced by these countries, providing valuable lessons for others wanting to build renewable energy capacity in their own countries. Robert Noun, Former Executive Director of Public Affairs, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Adjunct Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, US This book is unique in the literature on renewable energy law and policy. Firstly, it focuses on developing countries which means it fills the gap in international literature currently lacking on law and policy on renewable energy in developing countries. Secondly, it applies a basic uniform analysis method to each of the case studies. This makes the results of the case studies considerably comparable. Finally, based on the introduction to the related laws, policies and projects of the target countries, the author summarizes their experience and lessons. It is these summaries that reflect the purpose and value of this book. Wang Xi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China This is a unique book written by one of the leading scholars in the field. It uses detailed case studies to analyze the successes, failures and challenges of renewable energy initiatives in developing and emerging countries. Incorporating the insights and perspectives of researchers who come from the respective countries covered, the study compares some of the most exciting success stories, including: Chinas meteoric rise from near zero use of renewable energy to being the world leader in solar thermal, solar photovoltaic and wind energy; Brazils success in becoming the worlds top ethanol producer and exporter; and Indias pioneering use of a hedge plant to produce biodiesel and its use of animal and human wastes for rural electrification. The book also describes Indonesias disastrous palm oil program which cut down its forests and excavated its peat bogs. It concludes that good leadership is the largest factor in success, but that it is also critical to include public participation, training, transparency, environmental consideration, fair labor practices, protection against exploitation and enforcement. This book is designed to be helpful to other countries seeking to initiate renewable energy programs. It will appeal to local administrators and policymakers, field personnel from UN agencies and NGOs, and renewable energy funders, as well as to academic researchers.

Situating the global poverty divide as an outgrowth of European imperialism, this book investigates current global divisions on environmental policy.

This incisive book examines the interaction between international climate law and international trade law for the promotion of renewable energy. Alessandro Monti utilises the emerging principle of mutual supportiveness to inform and guide his analysis of the specific interactions between climate and trade law in the renewable energy sector.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this book provides a systematic approach to legislation and legal practice concerning energy resources and production in International Energy Law. The book describes the administrative organization, regulatory framework, and relevant case law pertaining to the development, application, and use of such forms of energy as electricity, gas, petroleum, and coal, with attention as needed to the pervasive legal effects of competition law, environmental law, and tax law. A general introduction covers the geography of energy resources, sources and basic principles of energy law, and the relevant governmental institutions. Then follows a detailed description of specific legislation and regulation affecting such factors as documentation, undertakings, facilities, storage, pricing, procurement and sales, transportation, transmission, distribution, and supply of each form of energy. Case law, intergovernmental cooperation agreements, and interactions with environmental, tax, and competition law are explained. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable resource for energy sector policymakers and energy firm counsel handling cases affecting International Energy Law. It will also be welcomed by researchers and academics for its contribution to the study of a complex field that today stands at the foreground of comparative law.

The book deals with the question whether the investment treaty law system could be harmonized with the climate change international legal framework and the climate interest that lies beyond. The answer to this research question is divided into three parts. The first examines the relevance of the climate change international legal framework in investment treaty disputes as a natural pre(logical)interpretative stage. The second focuses on the BIT’s content-interpretation, which is the orthodox approach to solve the fragmentation between the system of investment treaty law and the system of international climate change law. Finally, the third part tackles this fragmentation through a heterodox approach that is grounded in the direct application of climate change principles through law ascertainment. Apart from concluding that harmonization between investment treaty law and international climate change law is possible through the orthodox approach to the expropriation and the FET standards, as well as through the direct application of the climate change precautionary principle and the CBDRRC principle − heterodox approach, the book suggests that tribunals are expected soon to openly address climate change disputes in their rulings.