Suchergebnisse

"Guaranteeing energy security is one of the most complex challenges of energy law and policy. Energy insecurity threatens economic development, social peace and stability. This book focuses on energy security in the strategically important region of Central Asia. Despite huge energy reserves, the region's energy systems are amongst the most inefficient and unreliable in the world, and require urgent reform. However, endemic corruption, discrimination and the strong centralization of power have so far blocked initiatives to reorganise energy supply. The case of Central Asia is uniquely relevant for understanding the informal constraints on energy law and policy. In addition, Central Asian energy insecurity illustrates the impact of geopolitics on the regulation of energy markets. The region is strategically located along the New Silk Road - China's ambitious infrastructure initiative - and its energy situation highlights the complex interactions between energy law, geopolitics and institutions"--

ABSTRACT
In response to the 2022 energy crisis, caused by the disruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, the European Union (EU) emphasized the importance of accelerating the deployment of renewable energy to ensure supply security and lower energy prices. Paradoxically, renewable energy investments were also one of the main targets of the EU efforts to contain the hardship of the crisis. Based on the reasoning that investors in wind and solar energy received profits that by far exceeded pre-crisis levels, the EU capped their 'surplus revenues' and initially proposed to decouple electricity from gas prices. These initiatives were justified based on considerations of distributive energy justice. Yet, by interfering with revenues and the electricity market structure, the EU signalled to renewable energy investors the risk of regulatory intervention with the market basis governing their investments. Building on the arbitral practice on renewable energy and electricity regulation, this article examines the international protection of market-based renewable energy investments and critically reflects on how investment protection affects states' right to ensure energy justice in times of crisis.

AbstractConcerns over the weaponization of energy during the war in Ukraine have revived state anxieties about overreliance on certain foreign energy sources. This Essay argues that instruments of energy trade and investment protection have helped to lock states into dangerous dependencies. Trade and investment law can inhibit energy security strategies designed to diversify away from unreliable sources and to block suspicious investors. With energy used as a weapon, reform of the liberal energy regime is needed to allow states to prevent the creation of dependencies and protect their energy security in the new geopolitical reality.

The use of coal for power generation is incompatible with the EU decarbonization objective, but prohibiting it remains a national prerogative, in view of Member States' right to determine their energy fuel mix. Instead, the EU relies on market forces to drive the decarbonization of electricity supply. Building on the theory on the interactions of carbon and electricity pricing, this article examines how EU electricity law interacts with the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to facilitate the phase-out of coal power. In line with the theory, the legal architecture governing the liberalization of the EU electricity market plays a crucial, but much overlooked, role in the EU decarbonization approach by neutralizing regulatory obstacles to the influence of the ETS on investment and closure decisions. The renewed competitiveness of coal power in the context of the 2021–2022 energy crisis emphasized the economic unpredictability associated with this market-based approach. However, calls for market reform must be considered with caution given the complex interactions of electricity and carbon pricing, and the potentially destabilizing effect of regulatory interference with the market architecture created to drive decarbonization within EU constitutional powers.
decarbonization, coal-fired power generation, EU electricity law, EU Emissions Trading System, fossil fuel subsidies