Part VII Inter-linkages with Other Regimes, Ch.49 Energy

This chapter assesses the dominant narratives that emerge in discussion of energy and environment. One narrative is of energy activities as a pollution threat to be prevented, reduced, controlled, and eliminated. In another, more recent narrative, energy and environmental objectives are viewed more synergistically, and this is in the context of the role of energy—especially renewable energy and energy efficiency—in environmental protection and sustainable development. It is in the sustainable energy context that one sees some alignment, even convergence, of energy and environment. This convergence arises because environmental issues are increasingly drivers of energy law and policy, both nationally and internationally. In turn, response to the adverse impacts of energy activities is a key stimulus for the development of international environmental law, both substantively in fields such as nuclear energy and marine environmental protection, and procedurally, such as the duty to consult and to notify.