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Governance

Climate-related litigation is increasingly being used as a tool to hold private and public sector actors to account over their contributions to climate change. According to the Grantham Institute’s 2023 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report (the “Report“) – which was published on 29 June 2023 – around two-thirds of climate-related cases have been filed since 2015: between 1986 and 2014, approximately 800 cases were filed, but between 2015 and May 2023, approximately 1,557 cases were filed.

Although the majority of the climate-related cases identified in the Report were brought against regional and national governments, the Report identified an increase in the number of climate-related cases brought against private sector actors. Of the 190 climate-related cases identified in the Report as being filed between June 2022 and May 2023, around 46% were filed against an increasingly diverse pool of private sector actors. This reflects the growing recognition by prospective litigants of litigation as an effective means of influencing the actions private sector actors are taking to address climate change. We discuss the trends identified in the Report in this blog post.Continue Reading Climate litigation – the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment publishes its 2023 global trends in climate litigation report

A bird

A new requirement for most developments to achieve a minimum level of “biodiversity net gain” will come into force in November this year.  For some this will be an additional burden when preparing planning applications, but others will see it as an opportunity to create value through enhancing biodiversity whilst burnishing their “green” credentials.

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A bird

On 31 January 2023, the UK Government published its Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (the “EIP”), detailing how it plans to restore nature and improve environmental quality in the UK. In particular, the EIP proposes new commitments to upgrade wastewater treatment works, restore wildlife and promote nature-friendly farming practices. These new commitments underpin the ambitious international targets agreed at the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 in December 2022, which the UK Government helped deliver (for further information about COP15, read our earlier blog post here).

The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has said that the EIP “provides the blueprint for how we deliver our commitment to leave our environment in a better state than we found it, making sure we drive forward progress with renewed ambition and achieve our target of not just halting, but reversing the decline of nature“.Continue Reading UK Government publishes refreshed plans to improve environmental quality and reverse nature decline

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On 6 December 2022, the Council of the European Union (the “Council“) and the European Parliament (the “EP“) reached a provisional agreement on a proposal to minimise the risk of deforestation and forest degradation with products that are imported into, or exported from, the EU (the “Agreed Position“). The…

A bird

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, until next Monday (December 19).  It has been attracting much attention due to negotiations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which is hoped to be agreed upon in the next few days. This would be an important milestone has base been described as the “biodiversity equivalent of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change”.  The aims is to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and establish long-term goals by 2050.Continue Reading Observations from the COP15 (Biodiversity Conference) Halfway Point

iceberg with above and underwater view

On 2 March 2022, 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the fifth session of the United Nations Environmental Assembly to develop a draft global agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024. Significantly, the resolution covers the full lifecycle of plastic including its production, design and disposal. Inger Andersen, Executor Director of the…

Brazil - Fortaleza

Following a long-waited ratification (on March 4, 2021), Brazil became a party to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (“Nagoya Protocol” or “Protocol”) on  June 2, 2021. This is an opportunity to dig into some practical consequences of the ratification. One of these consequences relates to offering a possible remedy to clarify one of the pending issues related to the material scope of Law 13123 of May 20, 2015 (the “Brazilian Biodiversity Law” or “Law”).
Continue Reading Biodiversity – Brazil: Does the Nagoya Protocol Set Limits to the Scope of Domestic Legislation?

Environmental

Recently celebrating the 10th anniversary of its entry into force, the Nagoya Protocol is a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992, which seeks to facilitate the protection of biodiversity globally. Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (Parties) have committed to so-called “Access and Benefit Sharing” (ABS) principles regarding the acquisition and utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

In a nutshell, access to those resources is conditioned upon obtaining the prior informed consent of authorities in the country of origin. Resources should then be used according to “Mutually Agreed Terms”, which shall include benefit sharing mechanisms with the country of origin.

This structure places concrete obligations on any company dealing with nature-based products and, notably, a need to obtain appropriate administrative authorizations and set up contractual arrangements toward benefit sharing. Beyond that, the key driver for compliance is to avoid the reputational costs associated with possible allegations of bio-piracy. Given the complexity of the global supply chains involved, global compliance is a challenge.

In this Blog Post, we discuss the practical implications of the Protocol on international businesses and their supply chains.Continue Reading The Nagoya Protocol & Access and Benefit Sharing: Organizing the Supply Chain Toward Protection of Biodiversity Globally

Brazil - Brasilia - Congress

On March 4, 2021, Brazil ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (“Nagoya Protocol” or “Protocol”). Starting on June, 2, 2021, the country becomes a party to the Protocol and will be able to actively take part in discussions and decision-making, including by participating in the next Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (COP-MOP 4) scheduled for October 2021.

Brazil is the most biodiverse country in the world, and the ratification comes 10 years after the signing of the Protocol on February 2, 2011. In the meantime, the country passed its own regulations on biodiversity, notably Law 13,123 of May 20, 2015 (Brazilian Biodiversity Law), which provides for access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, as well as benefit-sharing mechanisms. The Brazilian Biodiversity Law is the national legislation for implementing the Nagoya Protocol and one of the key access and benefit-sharing (ABS) legislations, which places benefit-sharing obligations on manufacturers of finished products developed from Brazilian genetic resources (regardless of who previously accessed the resources).Continue Reading Brazil Ratifies the Nagoya Protocol: One Step Further to Unlock the Potential of Brazilian Biodiversity

Thailand - Bangkok

Amidst the global surge in interest around ESG investing, asset owners with diversified, global portfolios must understand the specific ESG risks that may apply to investments in different regions and industries, as well as the variety of approaches to ESG risk mitigation across public and private markets.

Southeast Asia is a particularly attractive region for…