This module lasts approximately 5 hours.

As United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said: “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive.” Energy was crucial to progressive realisation of the Millennium Development Goals, despite not being explicitly included in their text. The express inclusion of energy in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) redresses this omission, formally acknowledging the important role of energy in society and for the attainment of all SDGs as an integrated, indivisible set of global priorities. SDG 7 on Energy aspires to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all”, especially for the 1.3 billion people without electricity worldwide and 2.7 billion people who use wood and biomass to cook and heat their homes.

This course on focuses Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7 Energy), which commits to take “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, emphasizing the globally agreed upon need to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the damages caused by climate change, while acknowledging that the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.” The principal aim of the SDG 7 is to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.  Specifically, the Course highlights potential contributions of law and policy insturments in delivering targets 7.1 – 7.3.

The course provides a cursory survey of principal national and international law, policy and governance measures that have the potential to contribute to realizing SDG 7. It considers options for legal and policy preparedness, notes the potential for mainstreaming and more integrated implementation at the international and national levels, and offers some recommendations to deal with these issues.

The course includes an accompanying PowerPoint and covers: 

• Introduction offers brief background to the issues, the structure of the course, and an overview of the intended audience.
• Legal Innovations & Practices from Across Canada to Achieve SDG 7 provides an initial survey of federal, provincial, and territorial approaches which support achievement of specific targets under the SDG.
• International Legal Dimensions of SDG 7 highlights legal obligations under international instruments related to biodiversity.
• Legal Preparedness for Achieving SDG 7 with Canadians summarizes findings and provides mechanisms for enhancing efforts across all levels of government.

The analysis suggests that the SDG 7 targets are supported by international governance systems and legal measures, including multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), as well as Canadian domestic instruments and institutions which provide pre-existing pathways to support national implementation. While law and governance mechanisms which support achievement of the SDG 7 have been identified, there remain significant areas of opportunity to promote greater policy cohesion, refinement, scaling up of ambition, and engagement with civil society actors.

Primary Instructors

Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger

Professor Dr Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, DPhil (Oxon) MEM (Yale) BCL and LLB (McGill), BA Hons, Full Professor of Law, University of Waterloo, Fellow at C-EENRG and LCIL, University of Cambridge, International Advisor, IC3, is a distinguished professor, scholar and expert jurist in law and governance on sustainable development.

She serves as Senior Director of the CISDL in a pro bono academic capacity, where she mentors CISDL lawyers and fellows, and guides new international legal scholarship and education. She is also a Full Professor of Law (part-time) at the University of Waterloo and Fellow of the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Canada; and Fellow and Advisor of the Centre for Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Governance (C-EENRG) and Affiliated Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) in the University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on law and governance regimes related to climate change; natural resources and biodiversity management; investment, trade and the green economy; among other emerging sustainable development challenges. She received the 2016 international Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award for her leadership on behalf of future generations, among other international awards and honours.

Professor Cordonier Segger has edited/authored 20 books and 120+ papers in five languages, edits the Cambridge University Press Implementing Treaties on Sustainable Development Series, and serves on the Editorial Boards of 6 law journals. As an expert jurist, she is active in international sustainable development debates. She advises United Nations treaty negotiations and organizations, serving as Executive Secretary of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Chair of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Biodiversity Law & Governance Initiative. She is Rapporteur for the International Law Association’s Committee on Sustainable Resources Management; Chair of the World Bank Law Justice and Development’s Climate Law Community of Practice; and member of various Boards of Directors and Foundations.

Dr. Markus W. Gehring

Dr. Markus Gehring, J.S.D. (Yale), MA (Cantab), LLM (Yale), Dr iur (Hamburg), is an Expert in the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS), Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at Hughes and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. Before joining the Law Faculty as University Lecturer, he served for two years as Tutor in Sustainable Development Law, he was also Fellow in Law at Robinson College 2005-2012. He has been a Visiting Professor in several law faculties around the world and held a Jean Monnet Research Chair ad personam in Sustainable Development Law at the University of Ottawa Law Faculty in Canada. In his former department at Cambridge, Politics and International Studies (POLIS), he serves as affiliated Lecturer in European and International Law and Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Rising Powers. He is also an affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Land Economy, a Founding Fellow of the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Governance (C-EENRG) and an Associate of the Centre for Climate Mitigation Research (4CMR). He holds a J.S.D. and LL.M from Yale and a Dr iur from Hamburg. A member of the Frankfurt/Main and Ontario Bars, he practiced European and international trade law with Cleary Gottlieb in their Brussels office. Prior to joining Robinson College, he was a tutor in Public International Law at University College, Oxford. He serves as Lead Counsel for Sustainable Trade, Investment and Finance Law with the Centre of International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), based at McGill University. He edits the book series on Implementation of Sustainable Development Treaties with Cambridge University Press and is author of several publications on EU, International and Sustainable Development Law.

Dr. Alexandra R. Harrington

Dr. Alexandra R. Harrington, J.D., LL.M., D.C.L. (McGill), Professor, University of Albany School of Law, and Fulbright Canada Special Foundation Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada.

Dr. Harrington is the author of the book International Organizations and the Law and the forthcoming International Law and Global Governance: Treaty Regimes and Sustainable Development Goals Interpretation. She is the Director of Studies for the International Law Association Colombian branch, a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development, and an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. She also provides guest lectures globally on topics related to international law, environmental law, global governance and sustainable development.

Dr. Harrington has served as a consultant for entities such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and UN Environment. Dr. Harrington’s publications address a variety of fields relating to international law, including environmental law, legal issues relating to climate change, natural resources regulation, international organizations, international human rights law, international child’s rights, international trade law, corporate social responsibility, and criminal law. Dr. Harrington routinely presents her works at domestic and international conferences.

Mr. Freedom-Kai Phillips

Freedom-Kai Phillips, BSc honors (E. Michigan), MA (Seton Hall), LLB (Dalhousie), LLM (Ottawa), is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge, Operations Director and a Legal Research Fellow with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), a Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Mr. Phillips has most recently served as Senior Research Associate with the International Law Research Program (ILRP) at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and previously as Interim Director of the Centre for Law Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and Legal Researcher for the Ramsar Convention Secretariat. His research focuses on access and benefit sharing (ABS), governance of marine and terrestrial biodiversity, ocean climate interfaces, carbon offsetting and renewable energy promotion, and legal measures to support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Along with other CISDL contributors