The new measures include changes to grid access permits and a new remuneration regime for renewables, among other provisions.
By María José Descalzo, José María Alonso, and Leticia Sitges
On 23 June, the Spanish Government passed Royal Decree-Law 23/2020, which entered into force on 25 June, approving new measures in the energy sector that aim to promote renewable energy generation and support the recovery of the economy in line with the European Green Deal (the New Regulations).
Economic operators are facing a number of practical and legal questions as EU and national authorities work to facilitate the supply of biocidal products.
By Cesare Milani and Federica Rizzo
The COVID-19 crisis has increased demand for disinfectants, hand cleaners, and other biocidal products, resulting in general shortages across most EU Member States. Many companies are currently working to increase the supply of such products and are considering shifting production.
EU companies and non-EU economic operators (through their EU importers) and regulatory authorities are striving to make fast-track procedures fully available via derogation to the lengthy pre-market authorisation procedures established under the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) and other relevant regulations. In this respect, many questions have arisen surrounding: (i) which legislation applies; (ii) what is the competent regulatory body; and (iii) how to deal in practice with the legal and technical requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner.
The proposed federal permitting regime includes some surprising provisions, including no permit expiration and no proposed application deadline for most units.
By Claudia M. O’Brien and Stacey L. VanBelleghem
On December 19, 2019, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed rule to establish a federal permitting program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for the disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR), also known as coal ash, in surface impoundments and landfills. EPA’s 2015 CCR rule established self-implementing requirements for the management of CCR. In 2016, Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, which authorized states to submit for EPA approval state CCR permit programs to implement the federal CCR rule requirements. The WIIN Act also required EPA to implement a federal CCR permit program in Indian country and in states that do not have an approved permitting program.
The proposed rule, titled Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities; Federal CCR Permit Program (Proposed CCR Permitting Rule), would establish this federal permitting backstop.
The Bill proposes a post-Brexit system of environmental governance to oversee new powers and regulations in four environmental law areas.
By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green
On 15 October 2019, the UK government published the final draft of Environment Bill 2019–20 (the Bill), which aims to set out the government’s environmental priorities post-Brexit. The Bill covers a broad range of topics ― from air quality to England’s future environmental governance — and gives a legal footing to several policy commitments that the government has made in recent years. This blog post will consider the Bill’s content, and the potential impact that the Bill may have on environmental regulation in England.
Changes to the Investment Regulations mean greater ESG disclosure requirements in statements of investment principles.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and Shaun Thompson
In response to trustees’ uncertainty about how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors — as non-financial factors — apply to pension schemes, the Law Commission and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been exploring fiduciary duties and regulatory changes to better accommodate ESG factors in pension schemes since 2014.
This joint exploration culminated in the publication of the DWP’s Government Response: Clarifying and strengthening trustees’ investment duties, which outlined the UK government’s intended changes to the pension sector’s incorporation of ESG factors.
This blog will explore the pre-2019 pensions and ESG landscape and outlines future changes to pension disclosure requirements.
ECJ Decision Examines Definition of ‘Waste’ for Transboundary Consignments
Request for preliminary ruling from the Hague Court of Appeal confirms that the concepts of “waste” and “discard” must be interpreted broadly.
By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently handed down its judgment in response to a request for a preliminary ruling in criminal proceedings against Tronex BV (Case C-624/17), a Dutch wholesaler of residual consignments of electronic goods. The case concerns the transboundary shipment of electronic and electrical appliances to a third party in Tanzania.
This blog will examine the legislative framework and facts underpinning the case, and the ECJ’s discussion and decision.
The significant extension aims to manage plastic waste in an environmentally sound manner and support less developed nations that import waste.
By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green
On May 10, 2019, following two weeks of negotiations involving 1,400 delegates, at the Conferences of Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, it was agreed to extend the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (the Basel Convention) to include plastic waste (as well as making certain changes to the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions). The framework regarding the Basel Convention will look to implement a transparent and traceable system for the export and import of most plastic wastes under which exporting states must now obtain prior written consent from importing states.
This development represents a step change in the global management of plastic waste and places plastic waste within a globally recognised legal standard for the control of international movements of waste.
The Guide aims to improve climate-related risk disclosure in organizations’ mainstream reports.
By Paul A. Davies and Kristina S. Wyatt
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) have issued a Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Implementation Guide designed to foster improved reporting of climate-related information. The TCFD has enjoyed widespread support since its formation in 2015, yet relatively few organizations are applying the TCFD’s reporting guidance to address climate impacts in their disclosure documents.[i] The new Implementation Guide is designed as a “how to” manual to remedy this disclosure gap. The Guide aims to help companies to enhance the robustness, consistency, and utility of their climate disclosures by applying the disclosure guidance offered by the SASB and CDSB within the TCFD framework. This application of the TCFD, CDSB, and SASB standards should help companies to craft disclosures in harmony with the TCFD’s principles-based framework and the disclosure principles offered by the CDSB and SASB.
The decision gives landowners and developers a powerful tool to protect their interests and raises the bar for future critical habitat designations in unoccupied habitat.
By Janice Schneider, Nikki Buffa, and Brian McCall
The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., 586 U.S. (2018) has important implications for landowners facing “critical habitat” designations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for areas that are unoccupied by listed species. The timing of this decision likely means the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will incorporate it into forthcoming final regulations the FWS is currently promulgating.
Background
In Weyerhaeuser, the US Supreme Court considered two main questions:
The growth in the level of undertakings throughout 2018 tallies with a general increase in environmental enforcement.
By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green
The Environment Agency has released data indicating that enforcement undertakings in England and Wales reached more than £2.2 million in 2018 — the highest-ever levels within a single year. The amounts raised under these undertakings were given to projects and charities that will benefit the environment and assist in cleaning up parks, rivers, and beaches. In addition, the enforcement undertakings include voluntarily agreed binding commitments to carry out remediation and/or other corrective action.
Enforcement undertakings are voluntary, legally binding agreements that regulators can use if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence has been committed. These undertakings are one of the enforcement tools available to the Environment Agency, Natural England, and Natural Resources Wales in relation to potential environmental offences. Such offences include those relating to breaches of environmental permitting regulations, breaches under producer packaging requirements, and breaches of regulations concerning the discharge of wastewater.