Amelia Peterson, J.D., LL.M. is a Zimbabwean-born legal scholar, practitioner, and strategic partnerships leader specializing in energy law, infrastructure governance, and sustainable development across Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Juris Doctor and an LL.M. in Energy, Climate, and Environment Law, with academic training grounded in both legal doctrine and international business.
Amelia lectures in Energy Law and Policy at the University of Zimbabwe, where she teaches postgraduate students on electricity market reform, power purchase agreements, renewable energy regulation, and the governance of energy transitions. She supervises LL.M. research and mentors emerging scholars working at the intersection of energy justice, infrastructure privatization, and regulatory reform. Her teaching integrates doctrinal analysis with applied project structuring, exposing students to the legal architecture underpinning independent power production, public–private partnerships, and utility reform in developing economies.
She is also a lecturer in the African Climate Change Program run by Curtin University within its Business Law School. Her teaching focuses on Climate Finance, where she has trained dozens of government officials from countries across Africa on climate-aligned financing mechanisms, institutional design, and regulatory frameworks supporting low-carbon development.
She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Nairobi through CASELAP (Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy), where her research examines public participation and governance legitimacy in nuclear energy development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her doctoral work interrogates how constitutional principles, human rights norms, and participatory frameworks shape decision-making in emerging nuclear programmes.
Her broader research agenda examines governance frameworks for energy transitions, regulatory accountability, and the political economy of infrastructure development. She is particularly interested in how law mediates competing claims of energy security, economic development, and environmental justice.
Prior to her current role, Amelia held senior leadership and advisory positions spanning Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, and Tanzania. She has advised government agencies and private-sector actors in the renewable energy space on project structuring, regulatory reform, blended finance strategies, and climate-resilient infrastructure development. Her consulting portfolio includes solar IPP transactions, policy and regulatory assessments, and cross-border infrastructure initiatives, bringing a practitioner’s perspective to complex questions of law, governance, and implementation.
Amelia currently serves as Global Director of Strategic Partnerships at Bridges to Prosperity, where she leads government-facing collaborations to scale climate-resilient rural infrastructure systems. Her work integrates legal expertise, public policy strategy, and institutional capacity building to strengthen sustainable access across multiple jurisdictions.
