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Energy justice has grown significantly across all disciplines involved in energy research. Here an energy justice circle is advanced where the relationship with energy justice and human rights across the energy lifecycle is explored. It is clear that at the heart of energy justice from a practical perspective is the protection of human rights. That is what energy justice and the application of the forms of justice – procedural, distributive, restorative, recognition and cosmopolitan - that provide its basis can achieve.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has adopted a new law and policy framework, Vision 2030, designed to deliver a transition to a diversified and low-carbon economy. This paper analyses from an environmental law and policy perspective how law is providing opportunities and challenges in achieving the outcomes of this national masterplan. The paper employs traditional legal scholarship to assess the law itself and also explores its impact in practice, via an analysis of findings from expert stakeholder interviews. Key issues around environmental governance are discussed in depth in the light of Vision 2030. One of the key issues of focus is that of integration, in terms of the design and practice of law, institutions and outcomes. To date, it is clear that the further policies needed to ensure that environmental integration and a low-carbon transition take place are currently being created in the effort to deliver the aims of the Vision. This study finds that the transition to a low-carbon economy in the KSA is under-researched and under-explored in practice, from an environmental perspective. The findings attest that although some significant actions have been initiated, further action needs to be taken, given the importance of this transition, in the KSA in the light of the promising nature of Vision 2030 in this regard.

To achieve national energy and climate targets across the world, there is a key focus on solar energy development. It is clear from literature that many countries have enormous, under-utilised potentials for solar energy, which can significantly change their energy mix and contribute to the low-carbon ambitions they signed up to under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Our research highlights that there are benefits to solar energy development from a law and economic perspective that are still underexplored. These benefits centre on justice and on how solar energy increases justice within the energy system. From a legal perspective, we review 72 countries and their introduction of energy law with respect to solar energy development. Our analysis illustrates that in some developing countries (new) legislation was not associated with a significant increase in the share of solar energy in the energy mix. We then highlight how to achieve solar energy development through law that can provide certainty for investment. Furthermore, we stress the importance of flexibility that allows the full potential of solar energy to be realised within the energy system. The corresponding form of flexibility justice, combining law and economics, can contribute to increased economic welfare based on market reforms that centre on new market design and market access, while ensuring that it keeps pace with ongoing developments in technology, cost, and ownership.

Critical minerals will play a vital role in the energy transition. In South East Asia like in other regions across the world, there will be an additional advantage in that critical mineral development can contribute to an economic recovery and in time a green economic recovery. This article explores the role of justice in critical mineral development in the South East Asian region with a specific focus on Indonesia. The recent literature on critical minerals has a very limited focus on the role of justice in critical mineral development and this is even more so the case for South East Asian countries. This article provides a first account, utilising the JUST framework to explore, assess and quantitatively examine justice in the critical minerals industry in South East Asia and in particular, Indonesia. If the South East Asian region is to have a green economic recovery, there has to be a focus on achieving justice and reducing unjust outcomes. Indonesia provides strong examples for the potential of the industry and the development of policy to ensure justice, yet, it presents lessons for other South East Asian countries of the pitfalls in such ambition.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important environmental protection tool introduced into the environmental governance framework to evaluate and inform the administrative decision-making processes regarding whether certain developments or projects are to be allowed. In this article, EIA’s legal status and procedure are examined in relation to a Middle Eastern context, specifically to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Two different types of analysis are employed. The first is doctrinal analysis, focusing on the legal and statutory provisions regulating and organising this environmental protection tool—this genre of analysis entails identifying and unpacking the laws and regulations that govern this tool. The second type is qualitative analysis involving original data from 27 semi-structured interviews—one of the first of its kind on this topic in the KSA. The key contribution of the article comprises the examination and synthesis of the current status of different theories in the current international literature with regard to the underexplored issue of EIAs in the KSA.

The energy sector faces many challenges today, in particular from the current health (COVID-19) and resulting financial crises. However, a significant number of challenges existed prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. The approach here is to align academic and practitioner legal research and illuminate for the business world from a legal perspective what the key commercial risks are for the energy sector in the years ahead. A further aim of this article is to demonstrate to interdisciplinary energy researchers how these commercial risks can influence energy activity and decision-making across the world at local, national and international levels. Often those in science or social science do not realise the vital role law plays in reducing or increasing the risk profile of energy activity. And that, in essence, is what this article aims to address: the knowledge gap around law and risk and how interdisciplinary scholars should understand the issue of commercial risk in the energy sector. This article identifies how commercial risk for the energy sector will change due to what can be classed as ‘justice risks’. Resolving these justice risks will be necessary over the lifetime of a project from planning through construction, operation and decommissioning phases. For all stakeholders in the energy sector it is vital that there is a recovery and that new energy projects are built and that they contribute to a country’s 2030 energy and climate goals. As the world faces the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19, financial and energy-climate crises, ensuring engagement with justice risks can provide a pathway forward to ensure investors commit to investment. Energy, a key sector in the global economy, will be affected but at the same time can enable economic recovery. It can be stated, therefore, that energy has a dual nature – rather like the health sector – being part of the problem but also the solution to the current financial crises (ie the panacea).

The concept of energy democracy has seen a moderate rise in scholarship over the last decade. This article is the first to examine the concept of energy democracy from a critical perspective, and it is advanced here that the concept is limited and narrow. Further, through analysing it through the JUST Framework it is clear that energy democracy fails to deliver real justice. The JUST Framework takes us through core justice issues, such as distributive, procedural, restorative, recognition and cosmopolitanism. Further, it explores the space and time dimensions which bring a more practical perspective on the concept. Energy democracy scholars in the recent past (in 2019 and 2020) have sought to broaden the concept. However, as this article shows, these debates exist in the literature already, and energy justice and just transition issues go much further and are already more developed and utilised by researchers. In addition, the energy democracy concept is limited in the main part to local communities and ignores key issues such as energy extraction activities and indigenous communities. To conclude, and to achieve action, we call on energy democracy scholars to engage in the just energy transition literature and to contribute to the decrease of the language war that is progressively affecting the field of energy studies addressing the challenges of an accelerated transition to a lower-carbon economy.

The recent ruling in a Dutch court that Shell must curb its CO2 emissions is the latest in a series of legal moves bringing human rights concerns to bear on energy activities. This trend will have profound consequences for energy developments and for meeting climate goals.

Law will play a significant role in the future, in particular, for development of 2030, 2040, and 2050 energy, environment, and climate plans. For example, in order to achieve 2030 climate and energy targets, a corresponding law has to be formulated, passed, and implemented. This is because a functioning energy infrastructure takes not only time to plan, raise funds for, and build, but there are also complicated planning and environmental protection challenges that have to be met. All these lead to another important point: it is the national laws that can stimulate the energy sector development. A national government can set a policy agenda and make sure the law provides the relevant structures, incentives, and pathways for energy sector development. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief, up-to-date view of what energy law science and education should focus on as we move from 2020 to 2030. This article serves to provide a global perspective. Energy law should have similar provisions in all countries as it is based on the same technologies used across the world. What is different is the energy resources countries have at their disposal and the energy sector structures they are trying to create. At the same time, laws on the extraction of energy resources will be the same, including the system of incentives and taxation for the energy resources. Energy law science has already risen to the fore and is now supported by universities. Part 1 of the article is dedicated to energy law as a science and was published in 2020 in the Energy Law Forum journal, issue No. 2. This part focuses on development trends of energy law education and the key energy law development targets for the period from 2020 to 2030.

There is a key role for taxation in energy and public policy following the 2020 COVID-19 and resulting financial crisis. Taxation was already under the microscope at national, regional and internat...

It is advanced here that a principle-based approach is needed to develop the energy sector during and after COVID-19. The economic recovery that is needed needs to revolve around ensuring that no one is left behind, and it should be an inclusive transition to a secure and stable low-carbon energy future. There are seven core energy law principles that if applied to the energy sector could enable this to be achieved.

In terms of funders, we would like to acknowledge the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University as well as the St Andrews Sustainability Institute, School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews for their financial support in this initiative. With the dual challenges of reducing emissions from fossil fuels and providing access to clean and affordable energy, there is an imperative for a transition to a low carbon energy system. The transition must take into consideration questions of energy justice to ensure that policies, plans and programmes guarantee fair and equitable access to resources and technologies. An energy justice framework is outlined to account for distributional, procedural and recognition inequalities, as well as emerging themes such as cosmopolitan and non-Western understandings of justice, in decision-making relating to energy systems. The spectrum of research offers critical perspectives on the energy transition as well as tools for decision-making and policy processes. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods all contribute to our understanding of the problems and the success of responses. The studies presented in this special issue illustrate that the field of energy justice is a rapidly growing arena. There is constant innovation taking place in enabling the transition with new structures, processes and metrics being introduced to guide decision-making and a more holistic view of the community emerging where acceptance, mobilisation and empowerment are opening possibilities for a just transition to a low carbon energy system. The importance of introducing the interdisciplinary approach between social sciences and natural sciences as well engineering implementation supported by scientific data and experiments shall be emphasized in future studies. Postprint

This chapter highlights the importance of resolving human rights abuses. In order to ensure no delays to a project it is necessary for the project developer to resolve these current and potential risks concerning human rights. These risks need to be addressed so that the energy infrastructure project is less risky and therefore the costs of borrowing will be reduced. These new energy justice risks have all emerged in essence since the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Managing these risks will resolve the potential for human rights abuses. The chapter then discusses energy justice research and highlights some lessons for young researchers in the future.

Energy justice research has realized that the energy sector was missing an overall raison d’etre—the permeation of justice throughout the sector. This chapter opens the door to a more practical element that is needed in energy justice research, and focuses on how energy justice can be implemented. National legal courts are the arenas where energy justice can be enforced, and where societies can seek to have justice enforced through protection of a variety of human rights. One hundred legal cases from around the world covering the activities of the energy life cycle are analysed to highlight the key human rights and forms of justice that are being implemented today.

There are not a significant number of theories in energy law but a central one concerns its evolution. A framework is important as it will in essence provide energy law with a ‘spirit’ or a raison d’etre. This theory concerns the Evolution of Energy Law and the centre-point of this theoretical perspective is that to-date there have been Five Stages in the Evolution of Energy Law. In understanding what have been the key stages (or drivers) in the development of energy law it will give the energy law scholar an understanding of the motivation(s) behind the formulation of energy law.

This chapter explores a set of core principles that guide energy law. In advancing a guiding set of principles it set outs a new path for the study and practice of energy law. The aim therefore is to change what constitutes energy law and challenge the assumptions of existing researchers and practitioners as globally society moves towards a transition to low-carbon economies.

In Chap. 1 the need for the implementation of energy justice into practice is called for. This chapter advances the idea that there is a perfect storm within many countries that is creating a need for energy justice. These international conditions are giving rise to society focusing on the issue of justice in our economies. Climate change continues at pace, and unless action is taken across society the effects will be felt and our human rights will be infringed. With the energy sector being responsible for the majority of carbon dioxide emissions and many environmental impacts, justice need to begin to permeate the energy sector. In essence, human rights need to be applied at each stage of the energy life cycle.

The energy sector is characterised by inequality. There is limited literature on ensuring that distributive justice is a key policy goal of the influential practitioner area of energy taxation. Too often energy taxation policy is developed in isolation and a more holistic perspective is needed which incorporates the entire tax system and the energy justice perspective. A focus on distributive justice as an over-arching energy taxation policy goal is particularly important, as a retention of the current status quo will continue to see countries lose the majority of the benefits of their own energy resources to foreign markets and consumers. Distributive justice can also ensure increased accountability, transparency and governance in their energy sectors and hence contribute to societal energy and climate goals.

Over the last few years a number of computational approaches have been developed that enable the optimisation of marine monitoring strategies for CCS. These include methods to: simulate and quantify hypothetical release events, identify highly sensitive criteria by which to distinguish anomalous biogeochemistry which may indicate a seep and define minimum deployments of monitoring platforms which guarantee an acceptable chance of detection. In order for these tools to be operationally useful it is necessary to place them in an accessible and integrated digital format that allows the methodologies to be applied coherently to multiple offshore storage sites and to answer specific stakeholder led questions around required sensitivity, cost and assurance levels. In this work we describe progress towards achieving this integration as well as the site specific data necessary to generate bespoke monitoring guidance.