The green paper details plans to position the UK as a leader in green industries.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 17 October 2024, the UK government published “Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy” (the strategy) for public consultation. The strategy sets out a 10-year roadmap based on goals including driving economic growth, fostering innovation, and enhancing global competitiveness. The strategy is designed to position the UK at the forefront
On appeal of a strike out decision, the Court gives the plaintiff “his day in court” to argue that corporates owe a common law duty of care in tort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
By Sophie J. Lamb KC and Stephanie Forrest
On 7 February 2024, the Supreme Court of New Zealand decided to allow a novel climate change claim to proceed to trial. In Smith v. Fonterra, the Supreme Court reversed the earlier decision of its Court of Appeal
Goods imported into the UK from countries with a lower or no carbon price will face a levy by 2027.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 18 December 2023, the UK government announced a proposal for a new carbon border adjustment mechanism (UK CBAM). The announcement follows extensive consultation earlier this year on possible measures to mitigate carbon leakage risks and aims to support the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.
The UK has made a number of decarbonisation commitments including reaching net zero by 2050. These commitments to decarbonise can be undermined by “carbon leakage”, in which production of goods and associated emissions move from a jurisdiction with more ambitious climate policies (which add costs to carbon-intensive processes) to another jurisdiction with less ambitious policies, resulting in an overall negative impact on the carbon intensity of the processes/goods themselves. The UK CBAM (or other form of carbon tax) seeks to address this issue by aiming to put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of certain carbon-intensive goods entering the UK.
The Taxonomy aims to define green and transition economic activities to identify and allocate capital to sustainable projects and initiatives.
By Paul A. Davies, Farhana Sharmeen, Michael D. Green, James Bee, and Kevin Mak
On 3 December 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) unveiled the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance (Taxonomy) at the United Nations COP28 climate conference in Dubai. The Taxonomy sets out detailed thresholds and criteria for defining green and transition activities that contribute to climate change mitigation across eight focus sectors: energy, industrial, carbon capture and sequestration, agriculture and forestry, construction and real estate, waste and circular economy, information and communications technology, and transportation.
The framework claims to set the “gold standard” for companies to contribute to the net zero transition while emphasising ambition, action, and accountability.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
The UK Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) launched its transition plan disclosure framework (the Framework) at the London Stock Exchange on 9 October 2023. The Framework encourages businesses to create transition plans for a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy. It also seeks to help companies and financial institutions create consistent and comparable disclosures on their climate transition plans.
While initially voluntary, the Framework is expected to become mandatory for certain entities in the UK through incorporation into regulatory frameworks.
The ASA conveyed a sense of urgency, as it believes influencing consumer behaviour will be an important part of meeting UK net zero targets.
By Paul A. Davies, Sophie J. Lamb KC, Michael D. Green, and Aleksandra Dulska
On 23 June 2023, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published an update to its advertising guidance on misleading environmental claims and social responsibility (the Advertising Guidance) and stated its intention to continue to take a firm, but proportionate, approach against greenwashing claims. This latest update to the Advertising Guidance aims to identify factors that make environmental claims in ads more likely or less likely to comply with the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising (CAP) and UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP).
This blog post provides context for the latest update and summarises the new section of the Advertising Guidance that draws on principles established by recent ASA rulings as well as principles found in the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) Green Claims Code.
LIDW23 member-hosted event provided insights into current and future trends in the greenwashing space.
By Sophie J. Lamb KC and Aleksandra Dulska
Latham & Watkins recently hosted a panel discussion during London International Disputes Week on the topic of greenwashing and how English law continues to evolve and adapt in order to meet the needs of international businesses and other stakeholders engaging with this issue. The event provided a platform to explore:
(1) The key drivers of greenwashing complaints
(2) The challenges organisations face when trying to define and explain their sustainability plans (including against the backdrop of rapidly evolving reporting guidelines)
(3) The associated litigation trends as observed globally
The panel included the Honourable Mrs Justice Cockerill DBE (Commercial Court Judge, High Court), Sophie J. Lamb KC (Partner, Latham & Watkins), Adam Heppinstall KC (Barrister, Henderson Chambers), and Meghan Sheehan (Director and Head of ESG and Sustainability, Kekst CNC).
This blog post summarises the key themes of discussion that took place and provides interesting insights as to what may lie ahead.
The government published a new document outlining its existing and proposed objectives to develop the UK’s sustainable economy.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 30 March 2023, the UK government published an updated version of its Green Finance Strategy (the Strategy), titled “Mobilising Green Investment”. The Strategy is part of the UK government’s series of announcements for its Green Day (see this blog post for more on the broader Green Day announcements).
The guidance, published by a key entity behind the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, provides information on reporting of avoided emissions, and eligibility criteria for companies.
By JP Brisson, Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 22 March 2023, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released guidance on avoided emissions, i.e., emissions that occur outside of a company’s value chain. The WBCSD said the new guidance “will help ensure credible accounting of avoided emissions” and “seeks to bring harmonization and concrete guidance on how companies can assess and account for the decarbonizing impact of their solutions”.
The UK government has unveiled a number of measures with the overall purpose of reaching net zero by 2050 and meeting the UK’s climate targets.
By Paul A. Davies, Beatrice Lo, JP Sweny, Simon Tysoe, Michael D. Green, and James Bee
On 30 March 2023, on what has been called the UK’s “green day”, the UK government announced a series of policies and proposals that it hopes will form the backbone of its strategy to drive investment into green energy with a view to achieving energy security and meeting the target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.