ONLINE SEMINAR
INTRODUCTION
The global energy sector is one of the largest of the global economy. With the onset of the energy transition, driven by transformative new technology, it represents a time of significant change. All key societal stakeholders – governments, companies and citizens – will be impacted and consequently managing risk is important. International energy law needs to embrace, encourage and enforce change to retain its impact. In this way, ‘good’ international energy law should contribute to de-risking the energy transition. However, that is not the case currently and there are too many cases of pathways in international energy law that are diverging across the world. This presentation explores these diverging pathways and how different results develop in for example, planning, construction, operating or decommissioning phases of energy projects. The adoption of a more principle-based approach to international energy law can assist in de-risking it – in effect a top-down approach is vital. This approach is emerging from the United Nations more recently (for coal and critical minerals) and this presentation discusses this emerging approach and how it can be replicated to other areas of international energy law. Overall, in recent years, while the prognosis about the effectiveness of international energy law was one that was hospital-bound, there are increasingly effective remedies to outline a healthy future.
The session will be moderated by Dr. Mohammad Hazrati, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Professor Raphael J. Heffron is a Professor, Barrister-at-Law and Senior Counsel. He is also an international expert on climate change, sustainability and just transition public policy issues. He is a graduate of both Oxford (MSc-Christ Church) and Cambridge (MPhil-Darwin & PhD-Trinity Hall) Universities (UK). Currently Professor Heffron is Professor and Dean at the College of Law Abu Dhabu University in UAE (one of the World’s Top-200 Universities ranked by the Times Higher Education).
The principal focus of his work is on achieving a sustainable and just transition to a low- carbon economy, and combines a mix of governance, management, law, policy and economics. A key theme behind his work is human rights and he has been appointed to a UN committee on the just transition as well as the UNESCO policy lab. His work has featured in the Top-2% Stanford-Elsevier Scientist List in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. He has published over 200 publications of different types and is the most cited scholar in his field worldwide for energy and just transition law and public policy (6000+ Scopus/11,500+ Google Scholar) with translated work in multiple languages including Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic and Persian. Professor Heffron has given over 220 keynotes/guest lectures in 68 countries.
PROGRAMME
16:00 Opening remarks by Ms Denise Cheong, Head of Energy Law and Policy, CIL
16:05 Presentation by Professor Raphael Heffron, Dean, College of Law, Abu Dhabi University, UAE
16:55 Q&A, moderated by Dr. Mohammad Hazrati, Senior Research Fellow, CIL
17:30 End of Seminar
1.5 Public CPD Point
Practice Area: International Law
Training Category: General
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