Resilience in energy, infrastructure, and natural resources law: examining legal pathways for sustainability in times of disruption

In: Oxford scholarship online

Abstract

The number of severe, sometimes catastrophic disruptive events has been rapidly increasing. Extreme weather events including floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and other natural disasters have become both more frequent and more severe. At the same time the COVID-19 pandemic has created a global threat to public health with huge economic effects that recovery packages tried to address. These disruptive events, alone and in combination, have dramatic consequences on nature, human life, and the economy, calling for urgent action to mitigate their causes and adapt to their impacts. In response to discourses of collapsology and end-of-growth theories, this book offers an analytical approach to developing legal responses that can help assure that needs of present and future generations can be met through energy systems, infrastructure development, and natural resources management in times of more frequent and intense disruption. 'Resilience' is therefore seen as a common framework for the interpretation and development of energy, infrastructure, and natural resources law. With a mix of thematic chapters and case studies from multiple jurisdictions, the book maps and assesses legal responses to disruptive nature-based events, and examines possible legal pathways for more sustainable outcomes, based on its engagement with the concept of 'resilience' and a social-ecological thinking.