The research focus for the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law in 2003 was a timely and challenging one, entitled 'The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development'. As contemporary world politics demonstrates, energy resources and generation are crucial issues facing the international community. As research on energy law, at the international, regional, and national level is in its infancy, the insights provided by the contributors to this 2005 volume are a significant addition to the field.

As part of the mandate of the Academy, a significant topic of interregional research will be identified each year and the results presented at an annual meeting and published for wide dissemination. The research focus for 2003 is "The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development". As part of this effort, the Academy has assembled for the first time a volume of legal instruments which can be recognized as constituting the core of the law of energy for sustainable development. This volume will be an essential reference for all involved in environmental and energy research.

Sustainable Energy Democracy and the Law offers a legal account of the concept of sustainable energy democracy. The book explains what the concept means in a legal context and how it can be translated into concrete legal instruments.

Unsustainable practices worldwide in energy production and consumption have led to a plethora of environmental problems. Until recently environmental law largely overlooked the relevance of energy production and consumption; energy was seen to be of little significance to the advancement of sustainable development. This has changed since 2000 with the global concern attached to climate change, the publication by the United Nations of the World Energy Assessment and the detailed consideration given to this issue at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. Australia has been seen to be lagging behind the other major industrialised nations of the world in addressing sustainable energy issues. This book was first published in 2006.

Energy has recently emerged at the forefront of sustainable development. The United Nations Development Programmefs World Energy Assessment (2000) linked energy and most of the ills of modern society in both developed and developing countries. The World Summit on Sustainable Development selected energy as one of its five major agenda issues, devising a Plan of Implementation emphasising the role of energy in eradicating poverty. That same plan calls for the establishment of policy and regulatory frameworks to promote the development and dissemination of alternative energy technologies. This ground-breaking publication should serve as an invaluable tool to facilitate the understanding of the relationship between energy law and sustainable development.

In November 2003, the Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) launched a new scholarly network of environmental law faculties and professors: the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. The IUCN Academy, a consortium of specialized research centers in university law faculties worldwide, constitutes a learned society examining how law advances a just society that values and conserves nature. As part of the Academy's mandate, a significant topic of interregional research will be identified each year and the results presented at an annual meeting and published for wide dissemination. The timely and challenging research focus for 2003 was "The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development." This volume comprises the contributions of the 2003 conference.

Explores how these conflicting scenarios could be reconciled; how can we shape a more sustainable energy system from the existing one; and possible technological progress and innovations to enable a brighter future. Addresses the reality that there exists no consensus on the extent to which innovations can really contribute to reconciling ever-growing energy consumption, availability of resources and the environment, and the structural demands on any energy system. Offers and explains a four-point strategy: Energy should according to its importance regain a top priority in the political arena; higly targeted subsidies should be given for a limited amount of time to speed up the market introduction of energy-efficient and regenerative techniques in analogy to the ‚Dutch model‘; Negotiated agreements and unilateral self-commitments can subsequently ensure further market diffusion of sustainable energy innovations.; the basic research in energy should not be diminished but intensified instead