Abstract
Legislation regarding renewable energy became significant during the last few years. For this purpose, several international regulations have been adopted to regulate the environmental and energy policies of countries. These regulations are formulated in a wide range of binding instruments and soft laws. However, the proliferation of international instruments coupled with the uncertainty of the principles/rules of international law regarding the development of renewable energy sources necessitates the consideration of an international law approach. In this chapter, the author intends to examine the principles and rules of international law considering the importance of the development of renewable energy as an issue with global dimensions.
TopIntroduction
Historically, the states worldwide used various energy sources related to their socio-economic potentials for their demand and development. For example, PR China utilized coal as an energy fuel for its thermal demand since the second millennia BC and natural gas since 200 BC (Spataru, 2017). Since the late nineteenth century, the global society relied economically on conventional fossil energy, e.g., coal, oil, natural gas, etc., providing around 75% of the energy demand portfolio. However, these fuels have some unavoidable challenges and problems. Research have shown that with known exploration and extraction technologies, conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources could last for another few decades (may be an average of five decades for oil and fifteen decades for natural gas) (Ottinger, 2005).
Additionally, based on the uneven geographical distribution of fossil fuel carriers, more than 90% of the proven oil reserves are available in only 15 countries (Ruta & Venables, 2012). Based on the famous economic system of supply-demand, while mentioned countries with oil reserves should theoretically be able to use the fruits of modern scientific developments and innovations, such a situation creates a serious barrier for sustainable and inclusive development in other parts of the world. Furthermore, around 1.2 billion people, i.e., 16% of the global population, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia, do not have access to electricity (IEA, 2013). since those people cannot pay the energy price, these countries with fossil fuel reserves are blessed as finite sources, whereas new energies are theoretically infinite. Therefore, switching the focus from non-renewable fossil fuels to renewables to keep the stream of overall sustainable and clean development activities is known as a better and viable alternative, even though there are some inherent initial concerns, which are not unique to renewable energy generation rather present whenever any new technological innovations are introduced.
Climate change is a ‘shared concern of humanity’ (UN, 1998) and a threat to sustainable and equal development goals. Fossil fuel sources are responsible for 60% or almost two-thirds of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, which account for the global warming leading to climate change (McCollum et al., 2017; IEA, 2015). Therefore, it is advised that 75% of all fossil fuels, i.e., 35% of petroleum, 52% of natural gas, and 88% of coal reserves worldwide, must be maintained unused till 2050 to keep the temperature variation compared to 1900s below 2°C (McGlade & Ekins, 2015; IEA, 2014). Additionally, in the world energy industry, it is advised to change these sources or at least increase the share of greener energy that can be produced by exploiting the new, alternative, and renewable energy carriers, e.g., solar, wind, hydropower, ocean, biomass, and Hydrogen, etc. (Adib et al., 2015). It is a matter of great hope that despite the significant decline in fossil fuel prices in the last decade, clean energy produced an estimated 23.7% of the global electricity, of which 70%, 15%, 8%, 5%, and 1% of the electricity came from hydropower, wind, bioenergy, solar, and geothermal respectively and the rest came from marine energy (IRENA, 2017).
After successful cooperation on the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations members conducted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to end poverty, protect the plant, and develop sustainable development. However, it cannot be defined precisely (Holden et al., 2014), requires energy savings on the demand side, efficient improvement in energy production, continuous flow of clean and secure energy with less environmental impacts (Lund, 2007), and demands the amount of renewable energy to be more than 27% (IRENA, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
EurObserv’ER: EurObserv’ER is a consortium dedicated to monitoring the development of the various sectors of renewable energies in the European Union. Created in 1999 by Observ’ER, the Observatory of renewable energies in France, it is composed of five other partners: ECN (The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands), IEO (EC BREC Institute of Renewable Energetic Ltd), RENAC (Renewables Academy AG), FS (Frankfurt School of finance and management) and IJS (Institut Jozef Stefan ).
Energy Charter Treaty: The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement that establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy industry. The treaty covers commercial energy activities, including trade, transit, investments, and energy efficiency. In addition, the treaty contains dispute resolution procedures both for States Parties to the treaty (vis-a-vis other States) and between States and the investors of other States, who have made investments in the former territory.
Jus Cogens: Jus cogens, also known as the peremptory norm, is a fundamental and overriding principle of international law. It is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘compelling law.’ It is absolute, which means that there can be no defense for the commission of any act prohibited by jus cogens.
Energy Community: The Energy Community, also referred to as the Energy Community of southeast Europe, is an international organization established between the European Union (EU) and several third countries to extend the EU internal energy market to Southeast Europe and beyond. With their signatures, the Contracting Parties commit themselves to implement the relevant EU energy acquis communautaire, develop an adequate regulatory framework, and liberalize their energy markets in line with the acquis’s acquis under the treaty.
European Integrated Hydrogen Project: The European integrated Hydrogen Project (EIHP) was a European Union project to integrate United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE or ECE) guidelines and create a basis for ECE regulation of hydrogen vehicles the necessary infrastructure replacing national legislation and regulations. This project aimed to enhance the safety of hydrogen vehicles and harmonize their licensing and approval process.
Energy Charter Conference: Article 33 of the ETC establishes the Energy Charter Conference, which is the governing and decision-making body of the Organisation and has United Nations General Assembly observers’ status in the resolution 62/75 adopted by the General Assembly on 6 December 2007. Members consist of Countries, and Regional Economic Integration Organisations signed or acceded to the treaty and represented in the conference and its subsidiary bodies. The conference meets regularly to discuss issues affecting energy cooperation among Members, review the implementation of the treaty and PEEREA provisions, and consider new activities within the Energy Charter framework.
International Energy Charter: The International Energy Charter is a non-binding political declaration underpinning key principles for international energy cooperation. The declaration attempts to reflect the changes in the energy world that have emerged since the development of the original Energy Charter Treaty in the early 1990s. The International Energy Charter was signed on 20 May 2015 by 72 Countries plus the EU, Euratom, and ECOWAS at a Ministerial conference hosted by the government of the Netherlands.