This chapter analyzes the interconnections between energy policy and security and defense policies in Norway. It explains the background of energy and security regimes and analyzes policy interplay. Prior to 2022, Norway had barely considered the energy–security nexus due to substantial domestic energy supplies. Some interconnections were, however, visible via three cases: the economic security provided by oil and gas exports, security of hydropower infrastructure, and internal tensions around wind power. Repoliticization of the Norwegian energy policy took place in 2022, and questions of energy sovereignty and energy security also became a part of Norway’s energy policy vocabulary. In 2022, strong degree of securitization was not evident, but, lightly framed, there have been breaks from previous energy political practices – evidenced by new support for offshore wind power and visible military protection of critical energy infrastructure.

There is a growing demand for renewable energy sources to power the net-zero-carbon transition. What are the sources and their benefits and drawbacks?

Mountain areas have faced a rapid increase in human activities over recent decades, often leading to habitat loss or degradation. The impacts of these activities can affect bird species both directly (e.g., by altering habitat characteristics, impacting migration or disturbing breeding or wintering grounds), and indirectly by inducing physiological responses. We summarize the human activities that take place at high elevation and provide examples of species that are known to be impacted. Hiking and winter sports in particular are common in many mountain regions and there is growing evidence of a range of impacts on year-round resident mountain birds and their food resources. Increasing evidence also suggests that use of, and dependence on, human-derived foods around human settlements affects the trophic ecology of high-altitude birds. Hunting mountain birds is common place in many areas, and we review the evidence that hunting activity, including illegal persecution, has had impacts at the population level. Finally, we assess how direct disturbance and habitat alteration due to renewable energy developments (i.e. wind turbines and hydropower) are affecting mountain bird communities. There are many unknown impacts of human disturbance and we highlight missing information on specific topics that should be investigated in future research.

Chapter 8 argues that any steps or program can be effective only if they adopt a justice lens and reject proposed technical and market fixes that threaten to perpetuate the same inequities, corporate agendas, and extractivist mentality that created the climate and ecological crisis in the first place.

In this chapter Sharae Deckard reminds us that far from being a “green” country, Ireland’s carbon emissions are currently among the highest per capita in the EU and continue to rise, so that the Irish state falls far short of the reductions required by the Paris Agreement.” The chapter traces the history of Ireland’s energy regimes that range from turf, coal, oil, and more recently, renewables. In a comprehensive survey of the energy regimes and their representation in Irish literature Deckard argues that literary and cultural representations play a crucially subversive role in the contemporary neoliberal environment by offering “alternative conceptions of value that repudiate capitalism’s devaluing of human and extra-human life.”

Chapter 5 treats the topic of hydropower generation from turbines. Hydraulic turbines generate electricity. This chapter explains hydropower in Section 5.1, turbine types in Section 5.2 and turbine cavitation in Section 5.3.

Hydropower is the largest source of renewable energy in the world; it is expected at least to double by 2050. This chapter reviews how benefits from hydropower can be maximised while reducing environmental and social impacts. The scope for expansion of hydropower is considerable, but adverse environmental and social impacts need to be managed. Climate change is impacting hydro generation through changed snow melts and river flows, greater evaporation and more frequent extreme events, such as flooding and droughts. Hydropower infrastructure needs to have margins to cope with extreme events and adapt to changing conditions. Relicensing at specified intervals can provide a framework for renovation, removal or changes to minimise impacts and maximise benefits of dams. Planning of dams needs to be undertaken on a whole-of-river-basin scale . The World Commission on Dams (2000) recommended priorities for more sustainable development. The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol is one codification of better hydropower development practices. Hydropower is important in providing storage and firming capacity to complement intermittent generation from solar and wind generators.

This chapter introduces the reader to the main global energy issues. It starts by illustrating the fundamental role of energy in modern societies, and it continues by outlying the key energy challenges facing the globe as a result of rising demand for energy. Among these, particular attention is devoted to climate change, energy access in developing countries and energy security.

Anthropogenic alteration of river flows, lake levels, and the duration and extent of wetland inundation – collectively, flow regulation – degrades habitats, with manifold direct and indirect effects on populations, community structure and food webs. These can arise from an overall insufficiency of water, or changes in flow that result in there being too much or too little water at particular times.Fluxes of sediments and nutrients are also affected by trapping in dams, while water released downstream may have altered temperature, flow magnitude or periodicity, and erosive power.To mitigate such effects in rivers and associated wetlands, it is essential to allocate sufficient water as an environmental flow (e-flow) in order to sustain native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.There is general consensus that this allocation should involve sufficient water to mimic the natural flow regime.Obstruction of movement of materials and migrations by animals (mainly fishes) by dams will require different and innovative solutions, and the proliferation of hydropower dams on large rivers (Amazon, Mekong) will have serious consequences for ecology and fishery yields.

This chapter provides further context to the impact of project finance mechanisms by examining the Ugandan Bujagali Hydroelectric Power Project referred to in the Preface. This case study is different from the others. It focusses on the interface of contractual and policy instruments with indigenous peoples’ rights to land and then casts the net wider to examine how complex pricing terms and the inequitable negotiation of concessionary power purchase agreements (PPA), in which the government is the end buyer, will have implications for overall vulnerability; for example, by locking governments into an overall bad deal in which all the risk is passed onto the state which has little control over spiralling electricity costs. Thinking about these debt contract–community linkages and what might be done within the context of an important negotiated contract such as the PPA is crucial for two reasons: that of the spread of supposedly cleaner and greener hydroelectric projects worldwide to meet energy demand and the growth of the ‘people first’ trend in public-private partnerships in the quest to mobilise the private sector towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

This chapter contextualises how project finance mechanisms interface with indigenous land rights recognition and implementation, and the effects of that convergence for communities in Mongolia and Panama. I analyse how, in two cases, lender safeguarding policies are prioritised through the ordinary and mechanical stream of lender decision-making and the contractual networks that operationalise those policies, questioning the effectiveness of those policies to deliver fair, rights-compliant outcomes. I examine how private environmental and social experts, hired by the borrower, will sort and (de)prioritise local and international norms on indigenous rights and decide which social safeguard policies a borrower should comply with, and how. This provides insights into the operation of law and power in this field: specifically, the fragmented, de-prioritised and powerless nature of different sources of formal indigenous rights norms as they sit against contractual and policy norms. A larger question is of an over-reliance on private experts, the lack of transparency around their decision-making and a deficiency in independent regulatory oversight over these routinely delegated processes.