Susan is a lawyer and currently a Natural Resources Governance and Rights Specialist at Regenerate Africa, Uganda. She provides technical advice and project support to Regenerate Africa’s natural resource development and governance agenda. Susan is also a lecturer at the School of Law, Nkumba University, Uganda, where she teaches International Law and Environmental Law. Susan holds a PhD from the Center for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), Universty of Dundee, United Kingdom. Her PhD was titled “Just Criticality: A justice framework for critical minerals value chains” where she argues for the need for a just holistic value chain framework when dealing with critical minerals. She places her  arguments  within the current context of climate change, the just energy transition and the minerals-energy nexus.

Susan also worked on two CEPMLP projects on navigating the energy transition in Africa, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and UK Aid. She supplemented her studies with internships at the Extractives Hub, CEPMLP and the International Energy Agency (IEA). At the IEA, Office of the Legal Counsel in Paris – France, Susan contributed to two reports on (1) Driving Down Methane Leaks from the Oil and Gas Industry; (2) The role of critical minerals in clean energy transitions. She has conducted extensive research on climate change issues and natural resource governance. Susan has previosly worked as a senior research associate and project manager of the Women in Energy and Mining Empowerment Program of the ‘African Energy and Mining Management Initiative’ (AEMI), based in Uganda and in private law firms. Over the five years, Susan has conducted interdisciplinary energy, environmental and mining policy research. She analysed data and literature on several topics such as energy justice, the role of critical minerals in global decarbonisation, just transition, energy transition, zero-carbon energy systems, oil and gas, environmental and social governance concerns (ESG), circular economy and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

She also holds an LLM in Natural Resource Law and Policy (Distinction) from the CEPMLP, University of Dundee, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre, Kampala, and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Makerere University. Susan is also a member of the Uganda and East African Law Societies and the Energy Institute.

PUBLICATIONS
Book Chapters

Azubuike S.I., Nakanwagi S., & Dike S.C. (2022). Utilizing Sustainability Assessment Framework to Obtain a Social Licence to Operate in Renewable Energy Products. In Wood G., Gorski J., Mete G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Licence to Operate and the Energy Transitions. Palgrave Studies in Energy Transitions. Palgrave MacMillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74725-1_5-1

Nakanwagi S. (2021). Nuclear Energy Energy Transitions: Prospects, Challenges and Safeguards in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Nalule V.R. (eds) Energy Transitions and the Future of the African Energy Sector. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56849-8_4

Journal Articles
M.C. Abraham-Dukuma; O.C. Aholu; S. Nakanwagi; 2022. “Improving Regulatory Approaches for Abating Upstream Gas Emissions in a Low Carbon Era: Case Study of Algeria, Egypt, and Nigeria”, OGEL 2 (2022), www.ogel.org URL: www.ogel.org/article.asp?key=4021

Azubuike, S.I., Nakanwagi, S. and Pinto, J., 2022. Mining Resource Corridor development in Nigeria: critical considerations and actions for a diversified and sustainable economic future. Mineral Economics, pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-022-00307-5

Susan Nakanwagi and Ayebare Tom Rukundo, ‘Covid-19 Pandemic Deranging Energy Transition in Uganda: Challenges and Prospects,’ Global Energy Law and Sustainability, 1.2 (2020): 211–216, DOI:
10.3366/gels.2020.0030 © Edinburgh University Press