Environmental and Energy Law Perspectives Fall 2018

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T H E GEORGE WA SHI NGTON U N I V ER SIT Y L AW SCHOOL

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW

Perspectives

PROGRAM ESTABLISHED 1970

PERSPECTIVES

Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development: A Space for Legal Innovation Achinthi Vithanage, Visiting Associate Professor of Law and Environmental and Energy Law Fellow

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arnessing the infinite power of the sun, the wind, the seas and the available bio resources of the earth is no longer wishful thinking. Unprecedented technology developments have made these clean energy sources readily available for the world’s energy consumption. Over time, these technologies have also become increasingly affordable. That a global energy transition is well underway is certain. How viable a 100 percent renewable energy target is on a global level, on the other hand, is less so.1 Presuming the lofty international renewable energy goal is feasible, achieving it is bound for failure if access to energy goals are not simultaneously aligned. With more than 1.1 billion of the global population lacking access to energy today,2 the access issue is not one to be ignored. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have played a pivotal role in propelling the issue of access to energy to the forefront of the international stage.

SDG 7, which calls on states to “ensure access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all,” and which constituted a focus of the recent High Level Political Forum held in New York in July 2018, provides the international legal policy backdrop for this issue.

The Legal Challenge Despite the technological breakthroughs, whether you are striving to achieve 100 percent renewable energy consumption globally or universal energy access through clean energy, the challenges remain steep. While the most obvious challenge is financing these endeavors, the more pressing challenge is the lack of regulatory governance in the emerging field. The 2017 Global Status Report of the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) identified “policy uncertainty” as one of seven 3 main barriers to off-grid market expansions.4 In fact, roundtable discussions continued on page 16

FALL 2018 ISSUE PERSPECTIVES 1, 6, 16-19 EVENTS 1, 7, 12 NEWS 2–5 PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS 8–9 PROFILES 10–15

EVENTS

Ocean Conference on “Changing and Dynamic Oceans: Gauging Law and Policy Responses”

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n November 9 and 10, GW Law, in conjunction with the Marine & Environmental Law Institute of Dalhousie University and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) will be hosting a two-day conference

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