The UNEP Handbook for Drafting Laws on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Resources is written in response to needs expressed by developing country energy law draftsmen to UNEP for assistance in drafting legislative provisions for promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and particularly their environmental dimensions.
The Handbook is designed to be a user-friendly guide rather than a technical compendium or comprehensive collection of relevant legislation. The focus is on national legislation, but encompasses national constitutional provisions, regulations and state and local laws where they are the key determinants of the promotion of efficiency and renewable resources. Emphasis is placed on adaptation to local country needs and conditions.
The Handbook describes the key environmental and implementation issues associated with efficiency and renewable energy resources and presents legislative options from both developed and developing countries for dealing with them, including sample excerpts from legislation. Reference to the full text of legislation is provided.
The Handbook is not judgmental as to what is good or bad legislation, but rather identifies for each issue legislative options that frequently have been used to address the issue, leaving the draftsman to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of the presented options for his or her venue or situation. There often is an indication of how provisions worked in the jurisdictions where adopted.
The Handbook is divided into five sections. Section One sets forth the framework for energy resource management, placing energy efficiency and renewable energy in context among other available energy resources. This section also describes the materials covered in the Handbook. Section Two contains legislative information on issues of general application, pertinent to both efficiency and renewables. Section Three deals with energy efficiency laws in the various sectors of the economy. Section Four addresses legislation for each type of renewable energy. And Section Five deals with the special legal needs for bringing useful energy to rural areas in developing countries. The reader interested primarily
in any of these topics can look them up in the Table of Contents and go to these materials in the Handbook.
It is the premise of the Handbook that the prime goal of most developing countries is to provide for their people adequate food supplies, housing, health care, clothing, education and jobs to foster economic development and that affordable, clean energy supplies are essential to accomplishing these goals.