The Centre for Energy Law, Policy and Strategy of the Institute of Law, Nirma University organized an International Conference on Energy Trilemma: Emerging Laws, Trending Solutions and Exploring the Way Forward.
The conference saw participation from India and across other countries. For the Inaugural session, the Chief Guest was Ms Elina Teplinsky, Partner and Energy Industry Group Deputy Leader at Pillsbury Law in the USA. In all, there were a total of 22 paper presentations which were divided into 6 Technical Sessions.
The first Technical Session titled “Energy and Environment: Interface” covered the interface between Energy and Environment. In this session, the topics covered discussed the environmental impacts of blockchain technology as it involves a huge amount of electricity while adding blocks; and how the technology can be used for efficient management of energy.
The second technical session titled “Energy Conservation and Law” discussed the legal aspects of energy conservation. In this session, the presenters discussed the social impacts and dynamics of energy conservation practices. Also, the session covered the enviro-social issues in India’s coal sector and also highlighted the inadequacies and challenges plaguing the coal sector in India, in the backdrop of commitments made at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The third technical session, was on the sub-theme “Energy Security: Issues and Challenges”. The session covered varied topics ranging from the value of eco-tax as market-based instruments for optimal production and consumption patterns to the analysis of measures taken up by the local governments to diversify energy generation, sensitizing the use of green energy, energy affordability, and accessibility to green technology.
The fourth technical session titled “Energy Equity and Sustainability: Issues and Challenges” covered the issues and challenges in energy equity and sustainability. In the session, the presenters talked about the transition towards renewable energy, the issue of over-illumination, the problem of power theft and solutions to tackle it, and the interface between Intellectual Property Rights and access to renewable energy technology.
The fifth technical session, titled “Developing Countries’ Perspective” on energy trilemma. The session covered carbon footprints and their growing importance and regime and India’s Energy Targets which need to be efficiently reduced by 2030.
The sixth technical session, titled “India’s Energy Sector: Contemporary Challenges” highlighted the problems like financial burdens, lack of enough manpower, inconsistent government guidelines, and slow land acquisition prevalent in India for efficient power projects and suggested ways to eliminate them; the renewable energy consumption patterns in Gujarat, and the role of government authorities in addressing this issue.
The Conference was concluded with the Valedictory Session on March 11, 2022. For the Valedictory, Dr Rekha Singh, Dean, Faculty of Law, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar was the Chief Guest.