DOI:https://doi.org/10.65281/702888

Ait-Ali Zaina¹

¹Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Blida 2 , Algeria, Email: z.ait-ali@univ-blida2.dz

Submission date: 11.06.2025. Accepted date: 03.02. 2026. Publicaion date: 05.04.2026

Abstract:

This study examines the contribution of solar energy to the achievement of sustainable development through the lens of international environmental law. It analyses the conventional and customary foundations that consecrate renewable energies as a normative imperative, from the Stockholm Declaration (1972) to the Paris Agreement (2015) and the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The study demonstrates that the use of solar energy is not merely a technological opportunity, but an emerging legal obligation rooted in the fundamental principles of international law: precaution, prevention, common but differentiated responsibilities, and the right to development. Particular attention is paid to the reception of these principles in the domestic laws of developing countries, drawing notably on the example of Algerian law, whose legislative framework reflects substantial efforts to harmonise with international standards while calling for a progressive strengthening of implementation mechanisms towards an effective energy transition.

Keywords: sustainable development, solar energy, international environmental law, Paris Agreement, SDGs, precautionary principle, common but differentiated responsibilities, Algerian environmental law, energy transition.

Introduction

The energy question is today at the heart of the most fundamental debates in contemporary international law. The intensive exploitation of fossil fuels, inherited from the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, has generated an unprecedented environmental crisis whose effects – climate change, ocean acidification, atmospheric pollution – threaten ecological and social balances at a planetary scale. Faced with this reality, the international community has progressively built, since the 1970s, a normative corpus aimed at regulating the exploitation of energy resources and promoting clean, renewable alternatives.1

Solar energy occupies a singular place in this normative landscape. An inexhaustible, free, non-polluting and universally accessible source, it responds by its very nature to the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental viability, economic viability and social equity.2 According to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), globally installed solar capacity exceeded 1,000 GW in 2022, demonstrating an ongoing but insufficiently rapid energy transition in light of climate objectives.3 More than 733 million people worldwide still lack access to electricity, the majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas of developing countries.4

For Algeria, a country that holds one of the world’s most significant solar resources – with over 3,000 hours of annual sunshine and a technical potential estimated at 169 TWh/year – the question of solar energy goes beyond a mere energy policy choice.5 It raises issues of sovereignty, intergenerational justice and compliance with freely undertaken international commitments. The country, whose economy remains structurally dependent on hydrocarbons for more than 95% of its export revenues,6 faces the imperative of energy diversification for both ecological and economic reasons.

The central question of this study is the following: to what extent does international law oblige or encourage States to resort to solar energy as an instrument of sustainable development, and how do these obligations come to materialise in the domestic laws of developing countries? To answer this question, the study is organised around two axes: the international legal foundations of sustainable development and their guiding principles applicable to solar energy (I), followed by an analysis of the legal framework for solar energy in international law and its implementation in domestic legal systems, illustrated by the example of Algeria (II).

I. The International Legal Foundations of Sustainable Development

An analysis of the legal foundations of sustainable development in international law requires first tracing the normative evolution that led to the recognition of this concept as a binding norm (1.1), before identifying the major principles that constitute its operational basis and which find direct application in the field of solar energy (1.2).

1.1. The Normative Crystallisation of Sustainable Development in International Law

Sustainable development did not emerge as a fully formed legal concept: it results from a progressive sedimentation, nourished by major UN conferences, State practice and international jurisprudence. This evolution occurred in two phases – a conceptual emergence phase driven by early political declarations (1.1.1), followed by a conventional consolidation phase through instruments of increasingly normative scope (1.1.2).

1.1.1. From Stockholm to Rio: The Emergence of a Concept

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, marks the starting point for the international codification of environmental law. Its Principle 1 proclaims that ‘man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.’7 This conference established the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and laid the first foundations of a global environmental governance. As Alexandre Kiss observes, Stockholm represents ‘the founding moment of an international awareness that the environment cannot be left solely to the play of national interests.’8

The World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, provided the canonical definition of sustainable development in 1987 in its report ‘Our Common Future’: ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’9 This definition rests on two fundamental pillars: the satisfaction of the essential needs of present generations, and the limitation of resource use rights relative to the environment’s capacity for renewal. According to Philippe Sands and Jacqueline Peel, this formulation is deliberately broad to allow its integration into very diverse legal systems.10

The Rio de Janeiro Conference of 1992 subsequently consecrated sustainable development as the guiding concept of international environmental law. Principle 3 of the Rio Declaration affirms that ‘the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.’11 Legal scholarship has debated the normative value of this declaration: while it is not legally binding per se, it has acquired, according to Mireille Delmas-Marty, a ‘diffuse normative force’ that guides the interpretation of treaties and State practice.12

1.1.2. Conventional Consecration: From Framework Conventions to Binding Agreements

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in Rio in 1992 and entered into force in 1994, constitutes the legal bedrock of the international fight against climate change.13 Its Article 4 commits Parties to adopt national policies aimed at mitigating climate change by limiting their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which necessarily implies the development of renewable energies. The UNFCCC inaugurated a method of progressive soft obligation that Daniel Bodansky describes as a ‘regulatory ratchet’ – a normative escalation mechanism that progressively strengthens States’ commitments.14

The Kyoto Protocol (1997), the first binding instrument for emission reductions, introduced flexible mechanisms – the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), joint implementation – favouring investment in clean energy in developing countries.15 These mechanisms played a pioneering role in the financialisation of the energy transition, laying the groundwork for an international carbon market whose legal structure was taken up and deepened by Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement of 12 December 2015 represents the most significant normative breakthrough. Its Article 2 sets the objective of holding the increase in the global average temperature well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.16 Article 2(1)(c) introduces the notion of ‘finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions’, implying a reorientation of financial flows towards renewable energies. For Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, the Paris Agreement constitutes a ‘new generation treaty’ that combines binding procedural obligations with flexible outcome objectives, but whose collective dynamic is irreversible.17 Ratified by 194 States, it constitutes today the international reference norm in matters of energy transition.

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, complements this framework with quantified objectives. SDG 7 aims to ensure access for all to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, with a target of substantially increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.18 These SDGs, though lacking direct binding force, have been characterised by Alain Pellet as ‘obligations of conduct of variable intensity’ that significantly influence the interpretation of existing treaties.19

1.2. The Major Structuring Principles Applicable to Solar Energy

Alongside the crystallisation of the concept of sustainable development, international environmental law has identified a set of guiding principles that govern State action in the area of environmental protection and resource management. These principles each have direct relevance for energy policy: the precautionary principle (1.2.1), the prevention principle (1.2.2), the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (1.2.3), the polluter-pays principle (1.2.4), and the participation principle (1.2.5).

1.2.1. The Precautionary Principle

Enshrined in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, the precautionary principle states that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.20 This principle has acquired customary force confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay case (Argentina v. Uruguay, 2010).21 Nicolas de Sadeleer underlines that this principle effects ‘a reversal of the burden of proof in environmental matters’: it is no longer for victims to demonstrate harm, but for those engaged in the activity to justify its harmlessness.22

Applied to solar energy, the precautionary principle obliges States not to wait for exhaustive confirmation of all climate change effects before embarking on the transition to clean energy. It provides the legal foundation for the obligation to develop alternatives to fossil fuels even in the absence of definitive scientific proof regarding certain impacts. In Algerian law, this principle is enshrined in Article 22 of Law No. 03-10 of 19 July 2003 on environmental protection in the framework of sustainable development, and in Article 21 of Law No. 04-20 of 25 December 2004.23

1.2.2. The Prevention Principle

Distinct from the precautionary principle, the prevention principle applies when the risk is known and scientifically established. It obliges States to take measures to prevent anticipated environmental damage. Its foundations lie in the due diligence obligation consecrated by the ICJ in the Corfu Channel case (1949) and reaffirmed in the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion (1996).24 Patricia Birnie, Alan Boyle and Catherine Redgwell consider that this principle has attained the status of a general customary rule of international environmental law.25

In the context of the energy transition, this principle underpins the obligation of States to integrate the environmental costs of fossil fuels into their national policies and to take preventive measures to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies. It implies in particular the systematic environmental impact assessment of major energy infrastructure, codified in international law by the Espoo Convention (1991) on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context.26

1.2.3. The Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)

Enshrined in Principle 7 of the Rio Declaration and restated in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, the CBDR principle recognises that States share common responsibilities in protecting the environment, but that these responsibilities are differentiated according to their historical contribution to emissions and their capacity to act.27 This principle is the fruit of arduous negotiation between developed and developing countries, analysed in detail by Lavanya Rajamani in her work on differentiation in international climate law.28

For countries of the Global South, notably Algeria, this principle implies a right to financial and technological support to develop their renewable energy capacities. It constitutes the foundation of climate finance mechanisms, notably the Green Climate Fund (GCF), created by Decision 1/CP.16 at Cancun (2010), and the solar technology transfers provided for under Article 10 of the Paris Agreement.29 The tension between this principle and the demands for increased climate ambition constitutes one of the deepest fault lines in contemporary climate negotiations.

1.2.4. The Polluter-Pays Principle and the Internalisation of Externalities

First formulated in 1972 by the OECD in its Recommendation C(72)128, the polluter-pays principle requires that the costs of pollution prevention and control measures be borne by the polluter.30 Internationalised by Principle 16 of the Rio Declaration and integrated into European Union law through Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability, this principle has profoundly reshaped global energy policies. From the perspective of law and economics, as developed by Richard Posner, this principle aims to internalise the negative externalities of pollution into the price of polluting activities, thereby creating an incentive to adopt clean alternatives.31

Its application to energy policy translates into the imposition of carbon taxes, CO2 emissions trading markets and carbon pricing mechanisms that make fossil fuels more expensive relative to renewables. In Algeria, this principle is enshrined in Article 3 of the aforementioned Law No. 03-10 and implemented in successive Finance Laws through the tax on polluting and environmentally dangerous activities (TAPDE), although its effectiveness remains limited by insufficient enforcement mechanisms.32

1.2.5. The Participation Principle

Public participation in environmental decisions is enshrined in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration and in the Aarhus Convention (1998) on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.33 Although open to ECE-UN countries, this convention has influenced environmental legislation worldwide and constitutes, according to Michel Prieur, ‘the world charter of procedural environmental rights.’34

This principle guarantees populations, particularly rural ones, a right of scrutiny over energy policies that concern them, and underpins the legitimacy of solar projects with a social vocation. For solar projects in Algeria’s remote regions, such as the Grand South, the involvement of local communities in the design and management of infrastructure is both an international law requirement and a practical condition for success, as demonstrated by experiences conducted in similar contexts in Morocco and Tunisia.35

II. The Legal Framework for Solar Energy in International Law and Its Implementation in Domestic Legal Systems

Having established the theoretical and principled foundations of sustainable development, it is now necessary to examine how international law has progressively constructed a specific regime for solar energy through multilateral organisations and mechanisms (2.1), then to analyse the sectoral applications of this energy and their normative framework (2.2), before considering the concrete modalities of reception and implementation of these norms in domestic legal systems, drawing notably on the example of Algeria as a representative illustration of developing countries with high solar potential (2.3).

2.1. International Consecration of Solar Energy as an Instrument of Sustainable Development

International recognition of solar energy as a central lever of sustainable development was built through successive layers. It was first expressed through the creation of specialised intergovernmental institutions and the adoption of multilateral initiatives (2.1.1), before the physical and technical reality of this resource was integrated into international legal reasoning to found its normative singularity (2.1.2).

2.1.1. Institutional Instruments for Promoting Renewable Energies

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), established in Bonn in January 2009 and entering into force in 2010, is the principal intergovernmental organisation dedicated to renewable energies.36 With 168 members, including Algeria, it produces normative analyses, policy recommendations and technical reports that guide national legislation. Its REmap (Renewable Energy Roadmap) report sets quantified targets for solar deployment to maintain the temperature increase below 1.5°C. IRENA illustrates what David Hunter, James Salzman and Durwood Zaelke call a ‘knowledge regime’ – an institution whose normative influence rests not on coercive powers but on the epistemic authority of its analyses.37

The International Solar Alliance (ISA), launched at COP21 in Paris in 2015 at the initiative of India and France, brings together 121 countries situated between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn with the aim of mobilising more than $1,000 billion in solar energy investments by 2030.38 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/73/232 highlights the crucial role of renewable energies in achieving the SDGs and calls on States to progressively eliminate subsidies to fossil fuels, which the IMF estimates at more than $5,000 billion annually in direct and indirect support.39

2.1.2. The Physical and Technical Dimension of Solar Energy: Legal Implications

On the scientific level, the Sun is a star whose equatorial diameter reaches approximately 1,392,400 km, or 109 times that of the Earth. The mean Earth-Sun distance is 150 million kilometres. The total solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere, oceans and land masses is estimated at 3.85 x 10^24 joules per year.40 According to published data, the energy absorbed by the Earth in one hour exceeds global annual energy consumption – which underpins solar energy advocates’ claim that it represents a universal solution to humanity’s energy needs.41

Solar radiation is subdivided into three categories: thermal infrared radiation (approximately 11% of the total), visible radiation (45%) and ultraviolet radiation (9%).42 The international regulation of these radiations, notably through the Montreal Protocol (1987) for the protection of the ozone layer, illustrates the intrinsic link between solar exploitation and international environmental law. The Arab region and the Maghreb benefit from some of the highest solar radiation levels in the world, with intensity exceeding 1,000 W/m2 at midday and an average of 250 to 300 W/m2 per day.43

2.2. Sectoral Applications of Solar Energy and Their International Normative Framework

Solar energy cannot be apprehended solely from an institutional perspective. Its effective development requires a sectoral normative framework that touches on fundamental rights – notably the right of access to energy (2.2.1) – on mechanisms of technological cooperation between States (2.2.2), and on the legal regimes specific to each sectoral domain of application (2.2.3).

2.2.1. Access to Energy as an Emerging Right in International Law

The right of access to energy is not yet formally enshrined as an autonomous fundamental right in positive international law, but it is progressively recognised as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living guaranteed by Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966,44 and of the right to development proclaimed by General Assembly Resolution 41/128 (1986).45 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights clarified in its General Comment No. 15 that access to essential resources – including energy – is intrinsically linked to human dignity.46 Some scholars, such as Lavanya Rajamani and Jorge Vinuales, argue for the emergence of a ‘right to clean energy’ as a customary norm in formation.47

SDG 7 represents the clearest institutional expression of this normative evolution: it aims to ensure access for all to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030. Solar energy, by virtue of its decentralised characteristics and low operating costs, is particularly well suited to achieving this objective for the 733 million people without access to electricity, the majority of whom are in rural areas where centralised grid infrastructure is economically non-viable.

2.2.2. Transfers of Solar Technologies in International Law

Article 4.5 of the UNFCCC and Article 10 of the Paris Agreement provide mechanisms for the transfer of climate technologies to developing countries.48 The United Nations Technology Mechanism, comprising the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), is specifically responsible for facilitating such transfers. As Christoph Streck emphasises, the effectiveness of these mechanisms depends to a great extent on the political will of developed countries to go beyond formal commitments and accept a genuine erosion of their technological competitive advantages.49

These transfers raise complex intellectual property questions: patents on solar technologies are held by developed country actors to the extent of approximately 80%. The WTO TRIPS Agreement, and its flexibilities for developing countries, frames this tension between intellectual property protection and access to green technologies.50 The WTO decision of 17 June 2022 on TRIPS flexibilities for anti-COVID vaccines opened the way for similar discussions regarding clean energy technologies – a normative evolution that some authors characterise as a ‘right to green technology transfer.’51

2.2.3. Sectoral Applications and Their International Legal Framework

Solar water heating is one of the most widespread and best legally regulated applications. Programmes such as PROSOL in Tunisia, supported by UNEP/DTIE and GIZ, have demonstrated the economic viability and measurable impact on emissions of these systems, notably through a subsidy mechanism regulated by decree and integrated into electricity bills.52 These programmes illustrate how soft law instruments – subsidies, fiscal incentives, technical standards – can be articulated with conventional commitments to accelerate the deployment of solar technologies.

Solar electricity generation is regulated by varied national legal regimes (guaranteed feed-in tariffs, competitive tenders, green certificates) that fall within the framework of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement.53 Agrivoltaism – the simultaneous use of land for agriculture and solar energy production – represents an emerging legal innovation that raises questions of land law, land use and local governance, and is attracting increasing attention in climate negotiations, notably in the discussions on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement concerning cooperative mechanisms.54

2.3. Reception of International Solar Energy Law in Domestic Legal Systems: The Example of Algeria

An examination of Algerian positive law illustrates in a significant manner how a developing country with high solar potential can appropriate international norms relating to sustainable development and renewable energies. This reception has operated at two levels: first through a solid constitutional and legislative integration of the major principles of international environmental law (2.3.1), then through the establishment of an ambitious programmatic and institutional framework whose dynamic merits examination (2.3.2). Finally, several avenues for legal strengthening can be identified to consolidate this trajectory (2.3.3).

2.3.1. The Constitutional and Legislative Framework: A Substantive Reception of International Principles

The Algerian Constitution of 2020, in its Article 19, enshrines ‘the right to a healthy and balanced environment’ and imposes on the State the obligation to protect the environment.55 This provision constitutionalises Algeria’s international commitments and provides the legal foundation for national energy transition policies. This constitutional evolution is part of a broader movement of constitutionalisation of environmental law, observable in many developing countries and encouraged by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.56

Law No. 03-10 of 19 July 2003 on environmental protection in the framework of sustainable development constitutes the cornerstone of Algerian environmental law.57 It effects a remarkable transposition of the principal principles of international environmental law: precaution (Art. 22), prevention (Art. 20), participation (Art. 5) and polluter-pays (Art. 3). Algerian legal scholars note that this law represented a significant normative advance, introducing for the first time into the domestic legal order an integrated and systemic approach to environmental protection, consistent with the international standards arising from the Rio Declaration.58

Law No. 04-09 of 14 August 2004 on the promotion of renewable energies in the framework of sustainable development complements this framework by specifically regulating the development of solar energy in Algeria, with financial support mechanisms, priority connection obligations and deployment targets.59 It is complemented by Law No. 02-01 of 5 February 2002 on electricity and gas distribution by pipeline, which introduced the foundations of an electricity market enabling the emergence of independent renewable energy producers, in keeping with the orientations defined by the UNFCCC.60 This body of legislation demonstrates a strong legislative will to place the development of renewable energies within a structured legal framework consistent with the requirements of international law.61

2.3.2. The Programmatic and Institutional Framework: Ambitions in the Process of Materialisation

Algeria has adopted a National Programme for the Development of Renewable Energies (PNDER), revised in 2015, targeting the installation of 22,000 MW of renewable capacities by 2030, including 13,575 MW of photovoltaic solar and 2,000 MW of concentrated solar thermal power (CSP).62 This programme, articulated with Algeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the UNFCCC, sets an objective of 27% renewable energies in the national electricity mix by 2030. This voluntary commitment reflects a sincere commitment to the Paris Agreement dynamic and an acute awareness of the country’s considerable potential.63

On the institutional level, Algeria has progressively structured a governance framework dedicated to renewable energies. The creation of the Commission for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency (CEREFE) illustrates the will to provide the sector with a specialised strategic steering body, tasked with coordinating the action of the various actors – the Ministry of Energy Transition, Sonelgaz and private operators. This institutional evolution is in keeping with the logic of the participation principle enshrined in the Paris Agreement and draws closer to the governance models adopted in other Maghreb countries.64

The financing of the energy transition is an issue that Algeria addresses by mobilising both national budgetary resources and the international mechanisms provided for by the Paris Agreement – the Green Climate Fund, bilateral cooperation mechanisms. Access to these funds is progressively facilitated by the strengthening of national administrative capacities in the formulation and management of projects according to international standards.65 The question of the progressive reform of subsidies to conventional energies, in respect of social balances, also features on the agenda of planned reforms, in accordance with the IMF’s recommendations and the commitments made under the polluter-pays principle.66

2.3.3. Perspectives for Strengthening the Legal Framework

The Algerian experience mirrors that of many developing countries that have managed to establish a solid normative framework for renewable energies and are seeking to consolidate its application. The comparative analysis with neighbouring legal systems – notably Morocco with its Noor solar programme and Law No. 13-09 on renewable energies, or Tunisia with its Law No. 2015-12 on electricity production from renewable energies – provides useful lessons for deepening and refining the existing framework.67

Several avenues for legal development appear promising. First, the consolidation of the land tenure framework applicable to large solar installations in Saharan areas would further secure large-scale projects and attract long-term investment, drawing on the public utility easement mechanisms already recognised in Algerian law. Second, the integration into positive law of a specific regime relating to the end-of-life management of photovoltaic equipment, in keeping with the polluter-pays principle, would strengthen the overall coherence of the environmental framework and anticipate growing volumes of electronic waste.68

Third, the adoption of a framework law on energy transition – in the manner of experiences conducted in other States – would provide a unified reference framework that would confer greater readability and legal certainty on all actors in the sector.69 Finally, the strengthening of regional cooperation in the field of solar energy, within the framework of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, constitutes an ambitious prospect that would enable Algeria to valorise its exceptional solar potential on regional and international markets, provided that the necessary bilateral legal framework – investment guarantees, fiscal harmonisation, dispute settlement mechanisms – is progressively put in place.70 These developments are part of the dynamic driven by Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on cooperative mechanisms, which opens unprecedented prospects for countries with strong renewable energy potential.71

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that solar energy is not reducible to a mere technological option: it lies at the heart of an international normative system under construction, one that articulates environmental obligations, human rights and development imperatives. Several major lessons emerge.

At the international level, the law of sustainable development has reached a degree of normative maturity that firmly encourages States to engage in their energy transition. The Paris Agreement and the SDGs are not mere statements of intent: they constitute a corpus of progressive commitments, accompanied by monitoring and transparency mechanisms, whose collective dynamic is irreversible. The five principles analysed – precaution, prevention, common but differentiated responsibilities, polluter-pays and participation – form a coherent legal arsenal whose implications for States’ energy policies are direct and increasingly binding.

At the level of reception in domestic legal systems, the example of Algeria illustrates the trajectory of a developing country that has succeeded, in a few decades, in constructing a legal framework substantially aligned with the requirements of international environmental law. The 2003 and 2004 laws, the constitutionalisation of the right to the environment in 2020 and the adoption of an ambitious NDC testify to a sincere commitment and an affirmed will to participate in the global energy transition effort. The progressive strengthening of implementation mechanisms, institutional governance and regional cooperation constitutes the natural next step in this evolution.

The development perspectives identified – a framework law on energy transition, consolidation of the solar land tenure regime, a photovoltaic waste regime, and strengthened regional cooperation – constitute a realistic and coherent normative programme. Algeria possesses all the natural, human and institutional assets to make its immense solar potential a genuine vector of sustainable development. Solar energy is destined to become the pillar of global energy security in the twenty-first century, and international law bears the responsibility of accompanying – and accelerating – its universal deployment.

Footnotes

¹ Sands, Philippe & Peel, Jacqueline, Principles of International Environmental Law, 4th ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018, pp. 1-20.

² Sachs, Jeffrey, The Age of Sustainable Development, Columbia University Press, New York, 2015, p. 3.

³ IRENA, Renewable Capacity Statistics 2023, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, 2023, p. 4.

⁴ International Energy Agency (IEA), World Energy Outlook 2023, IEA, Paris, 2023, p. 37.

⁵ Cherif, Hania, ‘Importance of Renewable Energies in Environmental Protection for Sustainable Development’, Sawt al-Qanoun Review, vol. 6, no. 2, November 2019, p. 1190.

⁶ Zguib, Khaira & Mehdadi, Lubna, ‘Exploitation of Renewable Energies for Sustainable Development: Case Study Algeria’, Idafat Iqtisadiya Review, vol. 3, no. 2, 2019, p. 187.

⁷ Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 16 June 1972, Principle 1, Doc. A/CONF.48/14/Rev.1.

⁸ Kiss, Alexandre & Shelton, Dinah, Guide to International Environmental Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden, 2007, p. 15.

⁹ World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), Our Common Future [Brundtland Report], United Nations, New York, 1987, p. 43.

¹⁰ Sands, Philippe & Peel, Jacqueline, op. cit., p. 207.

¹¹ Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 14 June 1992, Principle 3, Doc. A/CONF.151/26/Rev.1.

¹² Delmas-Marty, Mireille, Le Relatif et l’Universel, Seuil, Paris, 2004, pp. 89-92.

¹³ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), New York, 9 May 1992, UNTS vol. 1771, p. 107, Art. 4.

¹⁴ Bodansky, Daniel, The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 2010, p. 112.

¹⁵ Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto, 11 December 1997, UNTS vol. 2303, p. 148, Art. 12.

¹⁶ Paris Agreement, Paris, 12 December 2015, UNTS vol. 3156, Art. 2(1)(a) and Art. 2(1)(c).

¹⁷ Boisson de Chazournes, Laurence, ‘The Paris Agreement: Whither Differentiation?’, Questions of International Law, vol. 26, 2016, p. 3.

¹⁸ United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 70/1, Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Doc. A/RES/70/1, 25 September 2015, SDG 7.

¹⁹ Pellet, Alain, ‘Les obligations de comportement et de resultat en droit international’, in Melanges Virally, Pedone, Paris, 1991, p. 394.

²⁰ Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, op. cit., Principle 15.

²¹ ICJ, Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay), judgment of 20 April 2010, ICJ Reports 2010, p. 14, para. 164.

²² De Sadeleer, Nicolas, Environmental Principles: From Political Slogans to Legal Rules, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002, p. 91.

²³ Law No. 03-10 of 19 July 2003 on environmental protection in the framework of sustainable development, JORA No. 43, 20 July 2003, Art. 22; Law No. 04-20 of 25 December 2004 on the prevention of major risks, JORA No. 84, 29 December 2004, Art. 21.

²⁴ ICJ, Corfu Channel Case (United Kingdom v. Albania), merits, judgment of 9 April 1949, ICJ Reports 1949, p. 22; ICJ, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, advisory opinion of 8 July 1996, ICJ Reports 1996, p. 226, para. 29.

²⁵ Birnie, Patricia, Boyle, Alan & Redgwell, Catherine, International Law and the Environment, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, p. 145.

²⁶ Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo, 25 February 1991, UNTS vol. 1989, p. 309.

²⁷ Rio Declaration, op. cit., Principle 7; UNFCCC, op. cit., Preamble and Art. 3(1); Paris Agreement, op. cit., Art. 2(2).

²⁸ Rajamani, Lavanya, Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, pp. 141-190.

²⁹ UNFCCC, Decision 1/CP.16, Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention, Doc. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1, para. 102.

³⁰ OECD, Recommendation C(72)128 of the Council on Guiding Principles concerning the International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies, 26 May 1972.

³¹ Posner, Richard A., Economic Analysis of Law, 9th ed., Wolters Kluwer, New York, 2014, pp. 69-72.

³² Law No. 03-10, op. cit., Art. 3; Youssef, Muhammad Safi, The Precautionary Principle in Environmental Damage [in Arabic], Dar al-Nahda al-Arabiya, Cairo, 2007, p. 60.

³³ Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, 25 June 1998, UNTS vol. 2161, p. 447.

³⁴ Prieur, Michel, Droit de l’environnement, 8th ed., Dalloz, Paris, 2019, p. 97.

³⁵ Said, Salah & Baroura, Melouka, ‘Study on The Use of Solar Energy in Tunisia as Alternative Energy: PROSOL Water Heating Project’, Journal of Economic Growth and Entrepreneurship, vol. 3, no. 2, 2020, p. 42.

³⁶ Statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Bonn, 26 January 2009, UNTS vol. 2700, Art. 5.

³⁷ Hunter, David, Salzman, James & Zaelke, Durwood, International Environmental Law and Policy, 5th ed., Foundation Press, New York, 2015, p. 320.

³⁸ International Solar Alliance, Framework Agreement, New Delhi, 15 November 2016, Art. 1.

³⁹ IMF, Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Multi-Country Analysis of Magnitude and Effects, IMF Working Paper WP/23/169, Washington D.C., 2023, p. 1.

⁴⁰ Jbouri, Omar Khalil Ahmad & Jbouri, Ahmad Hassan, Principles of Renewable Energies [in Arabic], Technical Institute, Hawija, 2010, p. 56.

⁴¹ Khorttchouko, Nicolaf (trans. Mahmoud, Bassam), Energy and Environmental Safety [in Arabic], Arab Training, Translation and Authoring Centre, Damascus, 2000, p. 309.

⁴² Cheikh, Bilal & Al-Absi, Ali, ‘Renewable Energy Sources and Methods for Encouraging Them’, International Symposium on Sustainable Development and the Problem of Financing Investments in Renewable Energies, Algeria, 10-11 April 2018, p. 13.

⁴³ Cherif, Hania, op. cit., p. 1190.

⁴⁴ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, New York, 16 December 1966, UNTS vol. 993, p. 3, Art. 11.

⁴⁵ United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 41/128, Declaration on the Right to Development, Doc. A/RES/41/128, 4 December 1986, Art. 1.

⁴⁶ UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 15 (2002) on the Right to Water, Doc. E/C.12/2002/11, para. 11.

⁴⁷ Rajamani, Lavanya & Vinuales, Jorge E. (eds.), Foundations of International Environmental Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2023, pp. 89-95.

⁴⁸ UNFCCC, op. cit., Art. 4(5); Paris Agreement, op. cit., Art. 10.

⁴⁹ Streck, Christoph, ‘Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime’, Journal of European Environmental & Planning Law, vol. 5, no. 4, 2008, pp. 395-410.

⁵⁰ Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Marrakesh, 15 April 1994, UNTS vol. 1869, p. 299.

⁵¹ Vinuales, Jorge E., ‘Temporal Aspects in International Environmental Law’, in Rajamani & Vinuales (eds.), op. cit., p. 243.

⁵² Said, Salah & Baroura, Melouka, op. cit., p. 43.

⁵³ Paris Agreement, op. cit., Art. 4(2); UNFCCC, Decision 1/CP.21, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, Doc. FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, para. 26.

⁵⁴ Boisson de Chazournes, Laurence & Mbengue, Makane Moise (eds.), Cooperation in a World of Peril: Essays in Honour of Alexandre Kiss, Frison-Roche, Paris, 2011, pp. 310-315.

⁵⁵ Constitution of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, revised by referendum of 1 November 2020, JORA No. 82, 15 December 2020, Art. 19.

⁵⁶ Bouhali, Mohamed Larbi, ‘Algerian Constitutional Law Facing Environmental Challenges’, Algerian Review of Legal, Economic and Political Sciences, vol. 57, no. 2, 2020, p. 42.

⁵⁷ Law No. 03-10 of 19 July 2003 on environmental protection in the framework of sustainable development, JORA No. 43, 20 July 2003.

⁵⁸ Bouhali, Mohamed Larbi, op. cit., p. 47; Salmi, Rachid, The Impact of Environmental Pollution on Economic Development in Algeria [in Arabic], doctoral thesis, University of Algiers, 2006, p. 111.

⁵⁹ Law No. 04-09 of 14 August 2004 on the promotion of renewable energies in the framework of sustainable development, JORA No. 52, 18 August 2004.

⁶⁰ Law No. 02-01 of 5 February 2002 on electricity and gas distribution by pipeline, JORA No. 8, 6 February 2002.

⁶¹ Tlemcani, Rachid, ‘The Challenges of Energy Transition in Algeria: Between Oil Rent and Climate Imperatives’, Maghreb-Machrek, no. 243, 2020, pp. 67-84.

⁶² National Programme for the Development of Renewable Energies (PNDER) revised 2015, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Algiers, 2015.

⁶³ Algeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), submitted to the UNFCCC, 2021; IRENA, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2022, Abu Dhabi, 2023, p. 62.

⁶⁴ Zguib, Khaira & Mehdadi, Lubna, op. cit., p. 197.

⁶⁵ Green Climate Fund, Country Programme Algeria, GCF, Songdo, 2022.

⁶⁶ IMF, op. cit., p. 8; Law No. 03-10, op. cit., Art. 3.

⁶⁷ Benali, Brahim, ‘Renewable Energy Policies in the Maghreb: A Comparison of Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian Legal Frameworks’, Revue du droit de l’Union europeenne, no. 3, 2021, pp. 115-132.

⁶⁸ Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), OJEU L 197, 24 July 2012.

⁶⁹ Prieur, Michel, op. cit., p. 634; Moroccan Law No. 13-09 on Renewable Energies, Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Morocco, No. 5822, 2011.

⁷⁰ Martin-Bidou, Pascale, ‘The Precautionary Principle in International Environmental Law’, RGDIP, October-December 1999, no. 3, p. 651.

⁷¹ Khawaja, Alaa Muhammad, Globalisation and Sustainable Development [in Arabic], Arab Knowledge Encyclopaedia, vol. 1, Dar al-Arabiya lil-Ulum, Beirut, 2006, p. 417.

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