I Introduction

It is one of the most significant insights of Adrian Bradbrook's work that he was the first legal expert to recognise the connection between access to modern energy services for domestic and personal use and poverty and to incorporate it in his research and writing. In doing so he has been instrumental in highlighting the fact that law, both national and international, has something to offer to the process of achieving progress on this issue. In this chapter I focus on one aspect of Bradbrook's wide-ranging work on access to modern energy services — namely, establishing a role for international law, in particular international human rights law, in the energy poverty debate. I choose this focus, representing as it does only a small part of his considerable published work in the field of energy, because we worked together on this topic and it is one I am familiar with. Moreover, it was whilst working in this area that it became apparent to me that the topic of women, gender and energy is neglected in mainstream accounts. I therefore build on Bradbrook's advocacy role for law and energy and the legal strategies that he has so creatively identified over the years and consider what international law can offer as a strategy for creating and implementing a gender aware energy policy.

II Energy and Poverty

Although the connection between development and energy has long been accepted, the link between access to modern energy services and poverty was slow to be recognised. There is nowadays worldwide recognition, albeit belated, that energy belongs at the forefront of the debate on the eradication of poverty.