Net Zero and Natural Resources Law

Aerial view of large electrical power plant with many rows of solar photovoltaic panels for producing clean ecological electric energy in morning. Renewable electricity with zero emission concept.

Net Zero and Natural Resources Law: Sovereignty, Security and Solidarity in the Clean Energy Transition, a book co-edited by Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN, past Bok Visiting International Professor and UNESCO Chairholder on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University,  was launched early this year at the Biennial Conference of the Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL), International Bar Association, held in Bogota, Colombia.

The book features a comprehensive chapter by Mehrnoosh Aryanpour SJD’25 titled “Sources and Principles of Natural Resources Law and Policy in a Net Zero Era,” which analyzes how the ongoing net zero transition is fundamentally altering the scope and application of longstanding principles of natural resources law and policy.

Published by Oxford University Press, UK, the book explores the latest developments in natural resources law and policy in light of ongoing worldwide efforts to achieve net zero. With case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australasia, and North and South America, it analyzes how legal and regulatory systems are responding—and can better respond—to the wide range of challenges and risks in the clean energy transition.

“The courtroom battles and arbitration challenges filed against some net zero policies and programs show the deep fragmentations, uncertainties, and implementation gaps that demand greater clarity,” said Olawuyi. “The 22 chapters of the book examine the wide range of challenges and risks in the clean energy transition and how lawyers and regulators can better respond to them.”

The collaboration also serves as a testament to the potential opportunities possible through the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Bok Courses, where Aryanpour was a student of Olawuyi’s; the pair have since collaborated on several other published works.

Damilola Olawuyi, SAN“I am particularly thrilled by Mehrnoosh’s outstanding contribution to this comprehensive volume. Her remarkable intellect and commitment to energy law and policy were immediately apparent when she was a student in my Bok course at UPenn, ‘Energy Justice and Sustainable Development,’” said Olawuyi. “With this publication, she is well placed as one of the leading experts that will be relied upon to clarify the legal and risk management tools needed to advance global targets on net zero and the clean energy transition.”

At first, Aryanpour, an energy regulatory attorney whose research at Penn Carey Law focuses on the effect of economic sanctions on global climate-change efforts, was asked to consult on the primary and secondary sources as well as any judicial decisions pertaining to natural resources.

But when she was encouraged by Olawuyi to examine the project with an eye towards energy transition, it expanded Aryanpour’s scope into the Paris Agreement and other international environmental treaties that intersect on the topic of natural resources, her thesis work, and in-turn the opportunity to contribute to the book as a solo writer.

“What about the trading of natural resources, the hydrocarbons, the resources that are renewable,” Aryanpour said. “What do we do with lithium now that everyone needs it for batteries in EV? WTO says no limitation on trade, but here we’re limiting the trades that create more carbon in the world. So the climate aspect became super interesting to me.

Mehrnoosh Aryanpour SJD’25Prior to coming to the Law School, Aryanpour’s legal career included work in Iran, where she opened the first branch of a major European law firm but had to divest from renewable and other energy projects due to the reimposition of economic sanctions. Her hope for the book is to continue to help push the climate dialogue to more practical, actionable efforts.

“I’ve seen these challenged countries, and in order for climate to become practical, it has to involve everybody,” she said. “I think that a lot of legislations are all investing in the West, and we’re not paying enough attention to the Global South. Countries who don’t have resources, or if they have resources they’re challenged for other reasons; they don’t have the technology, they don’t have the money, they don’t have the structure or frameworks, so I want to bring awareness and say we’re not going to succeed in our global climate change goals that have been established via the Paris Accord if we don’t engage those countries.”

Aryanpour’s chapter also informs her work with Project Green Swan, the Lauder Institute’s 2023 Jacobson Global Venture Award-winning investment platform she co-developed. The project is focused on early-stage development opportunities in sustainable infrastructure and energy, with a geographical focus on emerging and economically fragile states.

“[Other countries] need to be empowered in the right way,” she said. “It has to be monitored, designed intelligently. It’s more about just an awareness of reevaluating the regulations, the framework, and de-politicalizing the dialogue of climate.”

Learn more about Penn Carey Law’s Bok professors and courses.