The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted (in a 3-2 vote) final rules related to climate-related disclosures.  These rules had first been proposed in March 2022.  In his opening remarks, SEC Chair Gensler noted that the climate-change related disclosure rules will apply to public companies and to public offerings, and are intended to benefit investors by

The recent decision (20 February 2024) of the High Court in R (Rights Community Action) v Secretary of State is a rare example of an NGO succeeding in a climate change legal action under English law.  In the case, Rights Community Action persuaded the High Court to overturn a finding by the Secretary of State’s Planning Inspectors that a local authority’s “net zero” policy was unlawful.Continue Reading NGO successfully challenges planning inspectors’ report on energy performance standards

A new lawsuit filed by several business interest groups seeks to overturn two recent California laws relating to emissions disclosures (SB253) and climate-related financial risk disclosures (SB261), which would require thousands of covered companies to begin making disclosures as early as 2026. This Legal Update addresses the main arguments of the lawsuit, the initial reaction

Recognising the threat of climate change and the importance of sustainable development, Singapore has made a commitment to establishing a robust framework of environmental and climate change laws and regulations – an unprecedented initiative in the Southeast Asia region.

Singapore launched its key environmental strategy in 2021 with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a

On December 14, the National Congress of Brazil overrode most of the presidential vetoes to Federal Law No. 14.701/2023 (the “Time Limit Act”), which regulates Article 231 of the Constitution to set guidelines for the recognition, demarcation, use and management of Indigenous lands. The Time Limit Act was initially published on October 20, 2023, but

Following COP28 in Dubai, where our partner Luiz Gustavo Bezerra was present and participated in various discussions related to the transition to a low-carbon economy and the role of economic instruments and carbon markets, among several other topics, the implementation of initiatives that financially value the adoption of environmentally desirable practices by individuals and institutions

On 14 December 2023, following several rounds of inter-institutional negotiations, the European Council of the European Union (Council) and the European Parliament (Parliament) announced that a political agreement had been reached on a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CS3D).  The European Commission (Commission) had initially published its proposal for CS3D on 23 February 2022, with the Council and the Parliament issuing their own positions on the text on 30 November 2022 and 1 June 2023, respectively (see our previous blogs, here, here and here).

Inspired by the 2017 French law on Corporate Duty of Vigilance and the 2021 German Supply Chain Law (see our previous blog post), and in response to growing stakeholder expectations and demands in the EU and globally, CS3D sets out EU standards for human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD), requiring in-scope companies to mitigate their negative impact on human rights and the environment with respect to their own operations, those of their subsidiaries and those carried out by their business partners. In so doing, CS3D seeks to provide legal certainty and a level playing field as regards corporate supply chain obligations.Continue Reading Human Rights and the Environment – EU Institutions Reach Political Agreement On Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

Most UK climate litigation concerns challenges to the decisions of public authorities on projects with environmental effects or policies being adopted by Government that can have significant impacts on the environment.

A series of five recent decisions in the courts – all of which have rejected challenges based on climate grounds – show that the UK courts are extremely reluctant to call into question the decisions of national or local public authorities in the case of individual projects.  However, as we will see, there is room for challenges to be successful in limited circumstances which we consider below.Continue Reading A Wrap-Up of Recent UK Climate Change Litigation