Richard L. Ottinger

Compendium of Sustainable Energy Laws: Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 Establishing a Scheme for Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading Within the Community and Amending Council Directive 96/61/EC

(1) The Green Paper on greenhouse gas emissions trading within the European Union launched a debate across Europe on the suitability and possible functioning of greenhouse gas emissions trading within the European Union. The European Climate Change Programme has considered Community policies and measures through a multi-stakeholder process, including a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community (the Community scheme) based on the Green Paper. In its Conclusions of 8 March 2001, the Council recognised the particular importance of the European Climate Change Programme and of work based on the Green Paper, and underlined the urgent need for concrete action at Community level.

Compendium of Sustainable Energy Laws: Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the Promotion of Electricity Produced from Renewable Energy Sources in the Internal Electricity Market

(1) The potential for the exploitation of renewable energy sources is underused in the Community at present. The Community recognises the need to promote renewable energy sources as a priority measure given that their exploitation contributes to environmental protection and sustainable development. In addition this can also create local employment, have a positive impact on social cohesion, contribute to security of supply and make it possible to meet Kyoto targets more quickly. It is therefore necessary to ensure that this potential is better exploited within the framework of the internal electricity market.

Development and Energy

INTRODUCTION While energy is a physical entity well understood and quantitatively defined, the concept of development is less well defined and there are different perceptions about its meaning. The World Bank measures development by the gross national product (GNP) and nations are classified in categories according to their GNP per capita. This monetization of the concept of development is not well understood, nor accepted by many, particularly in developing countries, where income per capita varies dramatically between the poor and the rich. This is not the case in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries where there is a large middle class and variations in income are not very large. What the poor in the developing countries aspire to – and they represent seventy percent of the worlds population – is a “better life,” meaning jobs, food, health services, housing (rural or urban), education, transportation, running water, sewage communication services, security of supply, and good environment. These things are usually measured in industrialized countries by monetary transactions, but not necessarily so in many others. Climate, abundant and easily available natural resources can lead to a better life without great monetary expenses. In some countries cultural values are such that some items are less desirable than in others. In others the political system privileges some solutions over others that cost much less. This is why to compare stages of development only by GDP per capita can be quite misleading.

Energy Efficiency: The Best Immediate Option for a Secure, Clean, and Healthy Future

ABSTRACT The imperatives for reducing the worlds dependence on fossil and nuclear fuels have multiplied manifold in recent years with the advent of worldwide terrorism. These new dangers come in addition to the imperatives of addressing the dire consequences of global warming and devastating pollution that accompany the use of these fossil fuels. Reducing dependence on these unsafe and unreliable energy resources should be a top global priority. Implementation of proven energy efficiency technologies offers the world the fastest, safest, most economic, and most environmentally benign way to alleviate these threats. This article outlines available efficiency measures, their economic advantages, and means by which they may be and have been implemented. While examples of efficiency applications from both developed and developing countries are given, the article relies heavily on experience with energy efficiency in the United States, where data on efficiency is particularly abundant.

Pollution Taxes — The Preferred Means of Incorporation of Environmental Externalities

Internalizing the environmental costs imposed on society by polluters is the wave of the future in addressing environmental degradation. By signalling to industry the true societal costs of their operations, inclusion of environmental costs in the price of goods produced gives an economic incentive to industry to reduce pollution. This can be an important supplement to regulation.

Incorporation of Environmental Externalities in the United States of America

Internalizing the environmental costs imposed on society by polluters is the wave of the future in addressing environmental degradation. By signalling to industry the true societal costs of their operations, inclusion of environmental costs in the price of goods produced gives an economic incentive to industry to reduce pollution. This can be an important supplement to regulation.

Compendium of sustainable energy laws

Introduction 1. World energy assessment 2. International agreements 3. International law declarations and other soft law instruments 4. Action plans and multilateral operation recommendations 5. Select regional energy agreements 6. Select national legislation illustrative of sustainable energy laws innovations.

Assessing Environmental Governance of the Hudson River Valley: Application of an IPPEP Model

The process of obtaining effective implementation of environmental laws is a process of “environmental governance.” Law, including environmental law and other fields of law related to environmental law, is essential to frame, facilitate, and foster the major parties to correctly play their roles. This thesis has been articulated through a Model of Interactions of Parties in the Process of Environmental Protection (IPPEP Model), which has been developed by Professor Wang Xi of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in the context of the People’s Republic of China. The IPPEP Model is a tool for observing and accessing environmental governance at work. It is being tested by regional studies in various locations, such as the United States, the State of New York, and in this IPPEP case study of New York’s Hudson River Valley. The IPPEP model being examined, however, has universal applicability. Use of this model can predict that environmental standards will fail to be observed when necessary “Third Parties” are weak or absent. A nation with a commitment to the “rule of law” will enact and apply necessary legal procedures to ensure that each party can take part in the system and perform their role effectively. Part I of this paper describes the IPPEP Model. Part II is a brief introduction to the history of Hudson River Valley. Part III introduces the major parties or players in the process of protecting Hudson River Valley. Part IV consists of five case studies applying the IPPEP Model in cases of Hudson River Valley conservation. Part V concludes the paper.

Renewable Energy law and Development

‘Half the world’s 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 guide— clearly written, well-organized, and a great public service.’

Compendium of Sustainable Energy Laws: World Energy Assessment: United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, World Energy Council, World Energy Assessment and the Challenge of Sustainability (2000)

One way of looking at human development is in terms of the choices and opportunities available to individuals. Energy can dramatically widen these choices. Simply harnessing oxen, for example, multiplied the power available to a human being by a factor of 10. The invention of the vertical waterwheel increased productivity by another factor of 6; the steam engine increased it by yet another order of magnitude. The use of motor vehicles greatly reduced journey times and expanded human ability to transport goods to markets. Today the ready availability of plentiful, affordable energy allows many people to enjoy unprecedented comfort, mobility, and productivity. In industrialised countries people use more than 100 times as much energy, on a per capita basis, as humans did before they learned to exploit the energy potential of fire.1 Although energy fuels economic growth, and is therefore a key concern for all countries, access to and use of energy vary widely among them, as well as between the rich and poor within each country. In fact, 2 billion people – one-third of the world’s population – rely almost completely on traditional energy sources and so are not able to take advantage of the opportunities made possible by modern forms of energy (World Bank, 1996; WEC-FAO, 1999; UNDP, 1997).2 Moreover, most current energy generation and use are accompanied by environmental impacts at local, regional, and global levels that threaten human well-being now and well into the future. In Agenda 21 the United Nations and its member states have strongly endorsed the goal of sustainable development, which implies meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (WCED, 1987, p. 8).3 The importance of energy as a tool for meeting this goal was acknowledged at every major United Nations conference in the 1990s, starting with the Rio Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) in 1992.4 But current energy systems, as analysed in this report and summarised here, are not addressing the basic needs of all people, and the continuation of business-asusual practices may compromise the prospects of future generations. Energy produced and used in ways that support human development over the long term, in all its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, is what is meant in this report by the term sustainable energy. In other words, this term does not refer simply to a continuing supply of energy, but to the production and use of energy resources in ways that promote – or at least are compatible with – long-term human well-being and ecological balance. Many current energy practices do not fit this definition. As noted in Agenda 21, “Much of the world’s energy . . . is currently produced and consumed in ways that could not be sustained if technology were to remain constant and if overall quantities were to increase substantially” (UN, 1992, chapter 9.9).5 Energy’s link to global warming through greenhouse gas emissions (most of which are produced by fossil fuel consumption) was addressed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992. And in 1997 a United Nations General Assembly Special Session identified energy and transport issues as being central to achieving a sustainable future, and set key objectives in these areas. The energy industry also recognises the need to address energy issues within a broad context. For