IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Co-Chairs: Richard Ottinger and Wang Xi

The Specialist Group has had a busy year.

CSD-15:
Co-Chair Dick Ottinger participated with Andrea Athanas, Nadine McCormick and other members of the IUCN delegation at the Commission on Sustainable Development, CSD-15 session, and attended the excellent side event that they organized on ‘Biofuels: A tool for conservation,’ with excellent presenters. The Specialist Group didn’t play much of a role at the CSD meeting, however, since it quickly became obvious that no significant progress would be made on key Specialist Group issues.

IUCN Global Programme Activities:
Dick Ottinger is currently serving on the IUCN Leveraging Initiative Executive Committee. The Specialist Group have strongly advocated that IUCN should be a key player on climate change and energy issues that so vitally affect biodiversity and expressed our interest in participating.

Shanghai City Renewable Energy Law:
Co-Chair Wang Xi was requested by the municipal government of Shanghai to assist in drafting a renewable energy law for the City going beyond the requirements of the national law recently adopted by the China PRC. Dick Ottinger supplied background materials to assist in this project.

Access to Energy Services as a Human Right:
Specialist Group member Professor Adrian Bradbrook of the Adelaide University Law School, Australia, is engaged in writing a major paper on energy as a human right which will conclude at the end of 2007. Professor Bradbrook is in the process of consultations with interested parties and preparing Guidelines for the content of a proposed human right of access to modern energy services.

International Initiatives to Promote Renewable Energy:
Professor Bradbrook also presented a paper "International Initiatives to Promote Renewable Energy", at the invitation of the German government, for a REN21 workshop held at Paris last December to consider the agenda for a possible new international congress on renewable energy.

Alternative Energy Project:
Starting in 2006, but not to be completed until later in 2007, Professor Bradbrook and Dick Ottinger are both writing chapters on renewable energy for a book sponsored by the International Bar Association, accepted for publication by Oxford University Press. It is titled Beyond the Carbon Economy. Dick Ottinger’s chapter is entitled, Renewable Energy in National Legislation: Challenges and Opportunities, and Professor Bradbrook’s chapter focuses on the international law aspects of renewable energy.

Brazil Biofuels Conference:
Pace Law School and the prestigious Pontificia Universidade Catolica Do Rio de Janeiro (PUC) conducted a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 16-19, 2007 on Biofuels, using the Brazil Biofuels Programme as the centerpiece. The sponsors assembled a very impressive list of speakers including Specialist Group member Antonio Benjamin, now a Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil; Roberto Rodriguez, the recently retired Minister of Agriculture of Brazil; and many other outstanding experts. CEL Chair, Sheila Abed, agreed for CEL to be a co-sponsor of the event.

Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels:
 Dick Ottinger has accepted an invitation to serve on the Working Group on Environmental Impacts of Biofuels chaired by Jeffrey McNeely, IUCN Chief Scientist, as well as the Group on Social Impacts of Biofuels of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels to create guidelines for the sustainable production and use of biofuels.

The Development of an International Legal Management Regime to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future:
Professor Bradbrook has prepared a new major research project entitled ‘The Development of an International Legal Management Regime to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future’, and has applied for funding for the project from the Australian Research Council.

Fordham-Pace Law Schools Forum on Climate Change:
Pace Law School and Fordham University Law School held a forum on Climate Change, North and South, in October 2007, exploring the interstices of meeting climate change challenges in developed and developing countries. The Specialist Group was a co-sponsor.