Energy Law and the Sustainable Development Goals: Host Government Instruments for Sustainability in Oil and Gas Operations

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are an ambitious agenda for environmental sustainability, economic development, and social transformation. The SDGs include targets for governments, in partnership with private industry and communities, to improve access to affordable and reliable energy, reduce inequality, protect natural resources, and invest in transparent legal institutions and resilient infrastructure. Although transitioning energy systems towards a low-carbon future is a core aspect of the SDGs, the International Energy Agency anticipates that oil and gas will remain a significant component of the global energy mix for some time. Host Government Instruments are tools which governments use to grant oil and gas companies permission to develop state-owned resources. In addition to bringing substantial resources into governments, these HGIs often also include environmental commitments as well as commitments to local hiring, stakeholder engagement, and investment in economic development programmes. The different structures of HGIs and their precise terms and conditions are crucial determinants of the sustainability of oil and gas operations conducted thereunder.

This book addresses how governments can use HGIs to advance the SDGs. Part I introduces the SDGs and the legal institutions and governance related to HGIs, including in relation to international energy development, international environmental treaties, the Paris Agreement, and human rights regimes. Part II examines specific provisions within HGIs and regulatory systems which relate to the oil and gas sector and SDGs. It provides case studies to illustrate approaches to HGIs and to identify opportunities for host governments and international oil and gas companies to advance the SDGs.

The book concludes with a summary of recommendations regarding how host governments, in partnership with the oil and gas industry, can use HGIs to advance economic development and sustainability goals, and advances potential insights towards development of new and renewable resources.

Eduardo G. Pereira is a worldwide recognized scholar specialising in Natural Resources and Energy Law. He has been active in the natural resources and energy industry for more than 15 years. He has practical experience in over 50 jurisdictions covering America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Pereira concluded his doctoral thesis on oil and gas joint ventures at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). He conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (University of Oxford, UK) and further postdoctoral research at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (University of Oslo, Norway). He possesses positions as a full-time, part-time, honorary, adjunct and/or visiting scholar in a number of leading academic institutions around the world. He is also a managing editor for the GSENRLJ and an associate editor of OGEL. He is also the author and editor of several leading oil and gas textbooks.

Thomas L Muinzer, FRSA, is Co-Director of the Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law, based at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he is Reader in Energy Transition Law. His teaching, research and consultancy work focuses most particularly on climate and energy decarbonisation law and policy. He is the author of the first monograph on the world’s first example of national framework climate legislation: Climate and Energy Governance for the UK Low Carbon Transition: The Climate Change Act 2008 (Palgrave: UK, 2018). He is also Contributing Editor to the first book-length study of national Climate Change Acts from around the world: National Climate Change Acts: The Emergence, Form and Nature of National Framework Climate Legislation (Hart/Bloomsbury: UK, 2021). Thomas is a Founder Member of the Scottish Climate Emergency Legal Network.

Patrick R. Baker, J.D., Associate Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee Martin, joined the UTM faculty in 2016 and currently teaches Law within the College of Business & Global Affairs. In the summer of 2017, he served as a Visiting Scholar at Queen Mary University of London. In 2022 he was named the Ray and Wilma Smith Award for scholarly and teaching excellence and in 2021 he was awarded the 2021 Cunningham Outstanding Scholar and Teacher and the UT Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award. Before joining UTM, Patrick served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. There Patrick was appointed the inaugural director of the Natural Resources Law Center. His practice focused on Employment, Regulatory, and Energy Law. He earned a B.A. in history and minored in psychology at the Virginia Military Institute and was awarded his J.D. at the Appalachian School of Law, cum laude.