Dr Ernesto Bonafe

Dr Ernesto Bonafé is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at the University of Dundee. He also acts as the Lead of the LLM Programme. His research, teaching and editorial activity focus on the energy transition, in developed and developing economies, through the examination of policies, institutions, laws and regulatory frameworks, with a view to better understanding the trade-offs between energy security, affordability and sustainability, in a time where the energy trilemma has expanded into new priorities, such as universal energy access, competitiveness, stable value chains, climate change and biodiversity. He is involved in research projects dealing with offshore wind energy, in Scotland and in Spain, which benefit from government funding. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Global Energy Law and Sustainability (GELS) published by Edinburgh University Press.

His academic work benefits from extensive experience dealing with governments and the energy industry. He is a member of several expert bodies and associations: the Educational Advisory Board of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN), the European Federation of Energy Law Associations (EFELA), and the Ibero-American Association of Energy Law (ASIDE). Previously, he was a project manager for the UK-funded Extractives Hub at the CEPMLP, a civil servant in the international organisation Energy Charter Treaty Secretariat in Brussels, a training coordinator at the Florence School of Regulation in Italy, and a project expert on sustainable energy in developing countries.

He holds a PhD in Energy Policy and EU Law from the European University Institute of Florence, and a LLM in EU Law from the Free University of Brussels. He obtained his Law Degree at the University of Valencia, Spain, including an academic year at the University Savoie Mont Blanc, France. He worked in law firms in Valencia and Brussels, and undertook training at the European Commission in Brussels and at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.

• Just transition