The Palgrave Handbook of Natural Gas and Global Energy Transitions provides an in-depth and authoritative examination of the transformative implications of the ongoing global energy transitions for natural gas markets across the world. With case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, South America, Australia, and the Middle East, the volume introduces readers to the latest legal, policy, technological, and fiscal innovations in natural gas markets in response to ongoing global energy transitions. It outlines the risk mitigation strategies and contractual techniques — focusing on resilience planning, low-carbon business models, green procurement, climate-smart infrastructure development, accountability, gender justice, and other sustainability safeguards — that are required to maximize the full value of natural gas as a catalyst for a just and equitable energy transition and for energy security across the world. Written in an accessible style, this book outlines the guiding principles for a responsible and low-carbon approach to the design, financing, and implementation of natural gas development and commercialization. It is an indispensable text and reference work for students, scholars, practitioners, and stakeholders in natural gas, energy, infrastructure, and environmental investments and projects.

This Handbook is the first volume to comprehensively analyse and problem-solve how to manage the decline of fossil fuels as the world tackles climate change and shifts towards a low-carbon energy transition. The overall findings are straight-forward and unsurprising: although fossil fuels have powered the industrialisation of many nations and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people, another century dominated by fossil fuels would be disastrous. Fossil fuels and associated greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to a level that avoids rising temperatures and rising risks in support of a just and sustainable energy transition. Divided into four sections and 25 contributions from global leading experts, the chapters span a wide range of energy technologies and sources including fossil fuels, carbon mitigation options, renewables, low carbon energy, energy storage, electric vehicles and energy sectors (electricity, heat and transport). They cover varied legal jurisdictions and multiple governance approaches encompassing multi- and inter-disciplinary technological, environmental, social, economic, political, legal and policy perspectives with timely case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and the Pacific. Providing an insightful contribution to the literature and a much-needed synthesis of the field as a whole, this book will have great appeal to decision makers, practitioners, students and scholars in the field of energy transition studies seeking a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges in managing the decline of fossil fuels.

The low-carbon transition is ongoing everywhere. This Handbook, written by a group of senior and junior scholars from six continents and nineteen countries, explores the legal pathways of decarbonisation in the energy sector. What emerges is a composite picture. There are many roadblocks, but also a lot of legal innovation. The volume distils the legal knowledge which should help move forward the transition. Questions addressed include the differences between the decarbonization strategies of developed and developing countries, the pace of the transition, the management of multi-level governance systems, the pros and cons of different policy instruments, the planning of low-carbon infrastructures, the roles and meanings of energy justice. The Handbook can be drawn upon by legal scholars to compare decarbonisation pathways in several jurisdictions. Non-legal scholars can find information to be included in transition theories and decarbonization scenarios. Policymakers can discover contextual factors that should be taken into account when deciding how to support the transition.

The Palgrave Handbook of Zero-Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions provides a comprehensive and authoritative source of information, analysis and recommendations on the multi- and inter-disciplinary subject of zero carbon energy systems. The Handbook will advance thinking and research underlying the on-going energy transition by; covering a wide range of energy technologies and sources (e.g. fossil fuels, renewables, low carbon energy) including investigating the potential of new and alternative technologies and fuel sources and looking at the power, heating/cooling and transport sectors; Looking at varied legal jurisdictions and governance approaches including developing and developed countries and investigating potential new approaches to achieving a zero carbon energy system; Providing a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches from a range of disciplines; Inclusion of a global range of case studies from Africa, Arctic, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas (Central, North and South) and the Pacific, from the international, national, sub-national to city/community level.

This book explores the various issues that characterise the African mining sector, drawing examples from different African countries and regional organisations. Although there is a massive literature on the subject, some issues have been neglected, including the crucial role of digitalisation and technological advancement in resolving the environmental and social challenges faced in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM), deep-sea mining, mining contract negotiations and modernising mining laws to reflect the increasing role of critical minerals, to mention but a few. Therefore, the book unpacks the critical issues associated with the mining sector, explicitly reflecting on the practical solutions needed to address the challenges in the African mining sector. This book uniquely analyses and adds flavour to international mining’s fundamental concepts by describing a simulated annealing-based approach appropriate for complex mining projects in Africa. Book contributors comprise of academics from different universities including professors, practitioners, government policymakers, NGO executives and a variety of different experts. This multidisciplinary book will be of interest to African policymakers, governments, academics, industry professionals, energy and mining institutions, international organisations, universities across the globe and companies.

States, corporations, and other actors worldwide have committed to measures aimed at bringing down global emissions to net zero by the year 2060 or earlier. While the need for a clean energy transition is clear, incoherently designed transition programs can pose complex environmental, social, and governance risks, including legal liability and protracted disputes. At the same time, the rush for minerals needed to manufacture clean energy technologies raises fundamental questions–most crucially, how to ensure the exploration and development of energy transition minerals in a manner that does not exacerbate resource conflicts, resource nationalism, human rights violations, protectionism, energy insecurity, social exclusions, and inequity, especially in conflict-affected and high-risk regions. By studying the legal and regulatory systems of Africa, Asia, Europe, Australasia, and North and South America through the themes of sovereignty, security and solidarity, Net Zero and Natural Resources Law provides an in-depth discussion of tools and techniques for addressing the legal and contract risks relating to the clean energy transition. This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the nature, scope, and guiding principles of natural resources law and policy in a net zero era. Consideration is given to the integrated resource governance roadmap that is needed to improve coherence and coordination in the design, financing, and implementation of energy transition programs across the entire natural resource value chain.

This is the first handbook to provide a global policy perspective on energy, bringing together a diverse range of international energy issues in one volume. Maps the emerging field of global energy policy both for scholars and practitioners; the focus is on global issues, but it also explores the regional impact of international energy policies Accounts for the multi-faceted nature of global energy policy challenges and broadens discussions of these beyond the prevalent debates about oil supply Analyzes global energy policy challenges across the dimensions of markets, development, sustainability, and security, and identifies key global policy challenges for the future Comprises newly-commissioned research by an international team of scholars and energy policy practitioners