Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL)

The European Union, like many other nations and governments, is counting on hydrogen to play a big role in the energy transition. The EU has set ambitious import targets for hydrogen. This article will examine and comment on select parts of the EU framework that impact the EU’s plan for importing 10 million tonnes of hydrogen. This framework could have the effect of frustrating trade with third countries. Using the United States as an example of an importer, this article looks at (i) guarantees of origin, (ii) electricity market design, (iii) state aid, (iv) eligible carbon dioxide rules, and (v) the carbon border adjustment mechanism, with a view to ascertaining their effect on imports into the EU. The article finds that the EU framework causes unnecessary barriers to trade and may need to be tweaked to enable trade to fulfil its legislative targets.

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In response to China’s notorious enforcement gap, the judiciary has assumed a more prominent role in environmental governance through a process called judicialisation, or the expansion of judicial scope and power. Specifically, the development of environmental public interest litigation (EPIL), the growing number of environmental cases, and the establishment of specialised environmental courts have emboldened the courts to deeply participate in environmental governance. An outstanding question is what role environmental courts have played in enhancing environmental enforcement and protecting environmental public interest in such prominent environmental judicialisation.

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Around the world Indigenous communities are involved in the renewable energy industries. Relationships with for-profit corporations are integral to this development. Indigenous communities are entering into partnership with renewable energy corporations or developing their own renewable energy corporations. Relying on doctrinal, desk and case study methodologies, this article analyses six case studies and identifies three Indigenous–corporate relationships in the renewable energy sector in Australia. These include (1) renewable energy corporations that have proposed partial agreements with Indigenous communities; (2) Indigenous-led partnerships with non-Indigenous corporations; and (3) Indigenous-owned renewable energy projects.

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Oil and gas operators globally decommission their assets as they reach the end of their useful economic lives. To do this, regulators impose on operators financial tools to cover future decommissioning liabilities. However, research on decommissioning costs and guarantees in the upstream petroleum industry often focus on higher-income countries rather than nascent and emerging petroleum-producing ones. Our paper responds to this gap by examining Ghana's experience with decommissioning in its petroleum industry, which started commercial production in late 2010. Using critical legal and documentary analysis, we argue that Ghana has, since the mid-2000s, progressively but in a concerted manner worked at developing a framework which can serve as a model for similarly situated countries.

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The decarbonisation of the European Union (EU)’s energy system is critical for meeting the EU’s 2030 climate objectives and 2050 climate neutrality goal.Footnote1 These aims are to be achieved in part through a ‘circular energy system’, which is one of three complementary and mutually reinforcing concepts laying the foundation for the planning and operation of the energy system as a whole, as set out in the EU’s Energy System Integration (ESIS).Footnote2 Law in the EU’s Circular Energy System: Biofuel, Biowaste and Biogas, edited by two leading experts within energy and environmental law – Lucila de Almeida and Josephine van Zeben – covers the timely yet underexplored topic of the EU legal landscape surrounding the use of biological waste for energy production for and within circular energy systems.

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This review summarises the highlights of the Research Handbook on Oil and Gas, in which various authors provide a comprehensive overview of the past, the present and the future of oil and gas in the global economy. The book starts by examining the importance of petroleum from a historical perspective. Then, it explores the impact of oil concessions on the contentious relationship between producing nations and international oil companies (IOCs).

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Decommissioning is the end phase of a petroleum field’s life cycle. It involves plugging and abandoning petroleum wells, removing petroleum infrastructure or leaving it in place, and undertaking site remediation. The actual plugging of a petroleum well entails sealing the well with necessary materials (which usually include cement, bentonite, drilling mud, and mechanical plugs) to avoid leakages or migration of reservoir fluids and other gaseous substances.

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As China works towards its transition to a clean energy structure to mitigate climate change and pursue sustainable economic development, many intricate legal challenges prevail. For example, while China’s first climate change litigation Friends of Nature (FON) v Gansu Grid, which centred on renewable energy curtailment, ended in mediation, the reason for such high levels of curtailment remain unexplained. There is no specific climate change law in China, and most of the country’s energy-related laws were formulated more than ten years ago, long before carbon emissions became a notable issue. Legal scholarship on energy law in China is unfortunately scarce, piecemeal and outdated. Given China’s carbon neutrality commitment, it is imperative to explore how China’s energy laws, regulations, policies and market reforms respond to this neutrality challenge.

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Since the furore of a better-late-than-never recognition of the right to a healthy environment (R2HE) by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly, the question of the practical value of this recognition has been keeping both the environmental and human rights lawyers busy. From hopes to facilitate the growing body of climate litigation to concerns over judicial activism, the normative value of the R2HE requires careful clarification in the contexts of sectoral environmental protection, specific national jurisdictions, and procedural rules. This collection does not shy away from challenging questions and would be invaluable for anyone interested in both conceptualising and operationalising the R2HE.

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