This Companion provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary review of the future of energy, sustainability and societal well-being. It explores energyÕs connection to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a variety of perspectives from business sustainability, disruptive technologies, law, health and finance.

Courage, Contributions and Compliance: The Routledge Handbook of Climate Law and Governance recognises calls from the United Nations (UN), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The elders, and others, for climate justice and urgent action, and convenes insights from leading legal and institutional experts, professors, professionals and early career scholars on emerging climate law and policy challenges, commitments and solutions. The collection explores the role of law and governance in scaling up global responses to climate change and advancing sustainability. Based on careful study of international advances and the full spectrum of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the global response to climate change, as submitted by Paris Agreement Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the volume compiles a compelling, coherent and systematic topical account from across diverse legal jurisdictions. Analytical chapters by leading experts, practitioners and scholars close to ongoing climate negotiations explore recent legal and institutional innovations related to climate change which can support implementation and compliance with the Paris Agreement and advance the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They highlight ways to raise ambition through law and policy, to reform national legal and institutional arrangements to implement NDCs and to further develop international law and governance in the face of the existential threat of climate change and the world: sustainable development commitments. Presenting a pathway for advancing climate ambition in the coming decades, this book will be of interest to government officials, academics, students, professionals and policy makers working in the area of climate law and governance.

"Constituye un auténtico honor presentar la primera publicación promovida por la Red Iberoamericana de Derecho de la Energía (RIDE), titulada “Retos del sector energético para el desarrollo sostenible en Iberoamérica”, en la cual participan autores de diferentes países: Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, España, México, Perú, Portugal, Uruguay y Venezuela. Con este amplio número de aportes se abordan algunos de los temas de mayor actualidad para la región en materia energética. Las reflexiones vertidas en esta obra colectiva materializan uno de los objetivos de la Red Iberoamericana de Derecho de la Energía (RIDE), que está concebida como un espacio para la formulación de propuestas, debate de ideas, intercambio de criterios y opiniones, integrada por profesionales, académicos y funcionarios, con desempeño sobresaliente vinculados en el Derecho de la Energía, -entiendo como tal aquel que regula los sectores de los hidrocarburos líquidos y gaseosos, la electricidad, así como las energías derivadas de fuentes renovables convencionales y no convencionales-, que en un ambiente libre y plural, con vocación interdisciplinaria, convoca la participación de abogados, ingenieros, economistas y otros profesionales, cuyos conocimientos y experiencias puedan contribuir a la consolidación de este proyecto común. Es inspirados en estas ideas que se ha visualizado la necesidad de desarrollar este espacio que coadyuve al fomento de la reflexión, la investigación, el estudio, el intercambio de saberes, el diálogo y la formulación de las propuestas y las recomendaciones sobre el vigoroso mundo de las energías, en especial, en la región iberoamericana que tiene abundantes fuentes de energías renovables, pero que requiere de importantes reformas para estimular la inversión de capitales y tecnologías, destinadas a lograr su efectivo y eficiente aprovechamiento, que permitan brindar satisfacción a las necesidades energéticas de todas las personas que conviven en esta región, sin descuidar la sostenibilidad". Víctor Rafael Hernández-Mendible. Pedro Curvello Saavedra Avzaradel.

Maintaining and managing agrobiodiversity is a key issue proposed by agroecology, not only to maintain high agricultural productivity, but also to increase the resilience, stability and sustainability of the agroecosystems, meant as the functional relationship between the natural assets and the human use of them, at farm and farm matrix scale. The main hypothesis of this approach is that, the greater the interactions between organisms of different trophic levels (edaphic organisms, multiple crops, weed plants, herbivores, carnivores, plants in living fences, corridors or forest patches within agroecosystems), the greater will be the possibilities of obtaining abundant and varied harvests, with fewer external inputs (pesticides, fertilizers) and better environmental performance. The agrobiodiversity is meant as the variety and the disposition of the cultivations, pastures, farms, that affect the soil properties and create habitat diversity, landscape diversity and connectivity. At the level of landscapes or territories, the set of biodiverse agroecosystems generate natural matrices that have a powerful impact on the recovery and restoration of forest corridors, which, in turn, positively influence many ecosystem services for nature conservation and free movement and recovery of many populations of animal species, including those in danger of extinction.

The circular economy is a policy approach and business strategy that aims to improve resource productivity, promote sustainable consumption and production and reduce environmental impacts. This book examines the relevance of the circular economy in the context of developing countries, something which to date is little understood. This volume highlights examples of circular economy practices in developing country contexts in relation to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), informal sector recycling and national policy approaches. It examines a broad range of case studies, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, and Thailand, and illustrates how the circular economy can be used as a new lens and possible solution to cross-cutting development issues of pollution and waste, employment, health, urbanisation and green industrialisation. In addition to more technical and policy oriented contributions, the book also critically discusses existing narratives and pathways of the circular economy in the global North and South, and how these differ or possibly even conflict with each other. Finally, the book critically examines under what conditions the circular economy will be able to reduce global inequalities and promote human development in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Presenting a unique social sciences perspective on the circular economy discourse, this book is relevant to students and scholars studying sustainability in economics, business studies, environmental politics and development studies.

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation both seek to improve the world through social change. Whereas social entrepreneurship revolves around the business side of change, social innovation focuses on the processes through which that change is generated. This textbook provides a comprehensive analysis of both topics, covering all the characteristics and elements of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, from a conceptual and practical perspective. The book has four sections: 1) Basics and concepts of Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship; 2) Business models and generation of value in social enterprises; 3) Social innovation within traditional companies, and 4) Definition and alignment of the impact of social innovation and entrepreneurship. Students and any practitioners that want to know about social innovation or social entrepreneurship will be exposed to contemporary topics in the field as well as a variety of cases and tools for its development. With its learning objectives, reflective questions, the definition of key concepts, and exercises, this book is the definitive text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in social innovation and social entrepreneurship.