Devising legal principles for equitable fossil fuels phase out: An interdisciplinary framework

Energy CPT Seminar Series 2024/2025

Lunch is provided for in person attendees – please confirm your attendance either by accepting the meeting invitation, or emailing Katy Web (katy.webb@durham.ac.uk)

This seminar is both in person and online.  To attend online please contact Katy Web for MS Teams link. in person.

It is apparent from a wide body of knowledge that in order to meet the UNFCCC Paris Agreement objectives a large share of fossil fuels reserves will have to be left undeveloped. From a legal standpoint, this stance has been translated in a series of initiatives aimed at developing international law instruments addressing fossil fuels production to achieve a global fossil fuels phase-out. Any international legal regime addressing a global fossil fuels phase-out should however be grounded on existing legal principles of international law as understood and applied through the general principle of equity. Furthermore, the understanding of how an equitable fossil fuel phase out could be framed under any future instrument of international law should be informed by the existing scientific findings appraising, among others: a) the amount of remaining fossil fuel reserves, and b) the allocation of such reserves across States worldwide.

In this seminar, we will first map out the most relevant developments in the ongoing scientific findings about fossil fuel production worldwide. Second, we outline an analysis of different relevant legal principles underpinning an international legal regime for fossil fuel production as applied from the perspective of equity in international law. Third, we provide a tentative appraisal of how existing scientific knowledge could inform some of the said key legal principles, with a specific focus on the principles of sovereignty over natural resources, the principle of prevention and the principle of differentiation.

Speakers

Dr Matteo Fermeglia is an Assistant Professor of Climate Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam. He specializes in European Environmental Law and European Climate & Energy Law, with a research focus on the interplay between international investment law and the climate change legal regime.

Dr Fermeglia has been a visiting scholar at Columbia Law School, collaborating with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investments, and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He regularly publishes in internationally peer-reviewed journals and was awarded the Raúl Estrada-Oyuela Award for Emerging Scholars in Climate Law by Lexxion publishers in 2017.

Dr Daria Shapovalova is a senior lecturer in energy law at the University of Aberdeen where she is also the director of the Energy Law Centre and the coordinator of the Just Transition Lab. Dr Shapovalova’s main research interests are in energy, environmental law and human rights. Her current research is on the climate change and energy law with a focus on just transition. She has published extensively on Arctic governance, regulation of petroleum production, and climate change law. Dr Shapovalova holds an LLB (National Law Academy of Ukraine), an LLM in Public International Law (University of Groningen), and a PhD in Law (University of Aberdeen). She gained professional experience in energy consultancy and legal practice, most recently working on an interdisciplinary project on the just transition in Aberdeen’s energy industry. Dr Shapovalova is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is a member of the UK Environmental Law Association, World Commission of Environmental Law, and International Law Association.

Dr Kim Bouwer is an Associate Professor in Law at Durham Law School, and a Co-Director of Durham Energy Institute. She holds degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of London and UCL, and has held posts at a variety of global institutions including the EUI, University of Exeter and UCL Australia. She specialises in climate change and environmental law, and private law. Most recently, Dr Bouwer has worked as the Rapporteur for the UK on a project hosted at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, analysing the possibilities for actions against corporations for shortcomings in their climate change transition plans. Before her doctoral research, Dr Bouwer worked as a lawyer. She trained conducting legal community service in Johannesburg, then worked as an attorney in South Africa. Thereafter, Dr Bouwer worked as a solicitor at several Legal 500 firms in London, conducting claimant public interest litigation.