Renewable Energy Law: International and National perspectives

The world has become dependent on non-renewable resources for its energy needs and has been depleting the non-renewable resources steadily, especially since the Industrial Revolution . This led to global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases, resulting in climate change - an international threat at present. Due to the threat of depletion of resources, environmental laws and sustainable development principles are also connected to it. The first attempt at energy security began with the Stockholm Declaration , Rio Declaration and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which provided for sustainable development and inter-generational equity principles, among others. There are other international instruments, but they are soft laws with no binding implications. But it shows the will of the international community. There have been actions implemented at the national level by many nations for shifting the energy source to renewable sources but there lacks a binding international convention. A vast population also doesn’t have access to electricity either despite the heavy use of fossil fuels. The paper tries to co-relate aspects of energy law environmental law, including climate change laws and sustainable development principle of inter-generational equity. It also tries to present an analysis of activities taken by a few nations to shift from non-renewable energy sources towards renewable energy sources for energy production.