Sustainable Energy Democracy and the Law offers a legal account of the concept of sustainable energy democracy. The book explains what the concept means in a legal context and how it can be translated into concrete legal instruments.

This handbook offers a comprehensive transdisciplinary examination of the research and practices that constitute the emerging research agenda in energy democracy. With protests over fossil fuels and controversies over nuclear and renewable energy technologies, democratic ideals have contributed to an emerging social movement. Energy democracy captures this movement and addresses the issues of energy access, ownership, and participation at a time when there are expanding social, political, environmental, and economic demands on energy systems. This volume defines energy democracy as both a social movement and an academic area of study and examines it through a social science and humanities lens, explaining key concepts and reflecting state-of-the-art research. The collection is comprised of six parts: 1 Scalar Dimensions of Power and Governance in Energy Democracy 2 Discourses of Energy Democracy 3 Grassroots and Critical Modes of Action 4 Democratic and Participatory Principles 5 Energy Resource Tensions 6 Energy Democracies in Practice The vision of this handbook is explicitly transdisciplinary and global, including contributions from interdisciplinary international scholars and practitioners. The Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy will be the premier source for all students and researchers interested in the field of energy, including policy, politics, transitions, access, justice, and public participation.

This book makes the case for a New Environmentalism, and using a systems change approach, takes the reader through ideas for reorienting the economy. It addresses the laws and policies needed to support the emergence of a new economy across a variety of major areas – from energy to food, across common pool resources, and shifting investments to capitalize locally-connected and mission-driven businesses. The authors take the approach that the challenges are much broader than setting parameters around pollution, and go to the heart of the dominant global political economy. It explores the values needed to transform our current economic system into a new economy supportive of ecological integrity, social justice, and vibrant democracy.

Energy has recently emerged at the forefront of sustainable development. The United Nations Development Programmefs World Energy Assessment (2000) linked energy and most of the ills of modern society in both developed and developing countries. The World Summit on Sustainable Development selected energy as one of its five major agenda issues, devising a Plan of Implementation emphasising the role of energy in eradicating poverty. That same plan calls for the establishment of policy and regulatory frameworks to promote the development and dissemination of alternative energy technologies. This ground-breaking publication should serve as an invaluable tool to facilitate the understanding of the relationship between energy law and sustainable development.

Unsustainable practices worldwide in energy production and consumption have led to a plethora of environmental problems. Until recently environmental law largely overlooked the relevance of energy production and consumption; energy was seen to be of little significance to the advancement of sustainable development. This has changed since 2000 with the global concern attached to climate change, the publication by the United Nations of the World Energy Assessment and the detailed consideration given to this issue at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. Australia has been seen to be lagging behind the other major industrialised nations of the world in addressing sustainable energy issues. This book was first published in 2006.

Provides the first scholarly and comprehensive book on the national renewable energy laws of every country that has them (113 countries).

This volume is a companion to The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development. Here the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law assembles a volume of legal instruments which can be recognized as constituting the core of the law of energy for sustainable development. It will be an essential reference for all those involved in environmental and energy research.

Energy Justice: US and International Perspectives is a pioneering analysis of energy law and policy through the framework of energy justice. While climate change has triggered unprecedented investment in renewable energy, the concept of energy justice and its practical application to energy law and policy remain under-theorized. This volume breaks new ground by examining a range of energy justice regulatory challenges from the perspective of international law, US law, and foreign domestic law. The book illuminates the theory of energy justice while emphasizing practical solutions that hasten the transition from fossil fuels and address the inequities that plague energy systems.

This book outlines how Germans convinced their politicians to pass laws allowing citizens to make their own energy, even when it hurt utility companies to do so. It traces the origins of the Energiewende movement in Germany from the Power Rebels of Schönau to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shutdown of eight nuclear power plants following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The authors explore how, by taking ownership of energy efficiency at a local level, community groups are key actors in the bottom-up fight against climate change. Individually, citizens might install solar panels on their roofs, but citizen groups can do much more: community wind farms, local heat supply, walkable cities and more. This book offers evidence that the transition to renewables is a one-time opportunity to strengthen communities and democratize the energy sector – in Germany and around the world.

The research focus for the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law in 2003 was a timely and challenging one, entitled 'The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development'. As contemporary world politics demonstrates, energy resources and generation are crucial issues facing the international community. As research on energy law, at the international, regional, and national level is in its infancy, the insights provided by the contributors to this 2005 volume are a significant addition to the field.