Other authors: Kirsty Morris
The House of Commons’ Joint Committee on Human Rights (the “Committee“) has launched a new inquiry to examine the UK’s current framework in relation to forced labour in international supply chains1. The Committee is seeking to establish if the current framework is effective in managing the risk
On 15 October, the UK’s independent public spending watchdog (the National Audit Office or NAO) published its overview of the Government’s approach to the three areas of environmental improvement, net zero and climate change adaptation.
The report provides a high-level critique of Government programmes to date on these three interrelated areas emphasising the scale of
Following the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (“CMA”) recent investigation regarding ‘Green Claims’ in the fashion industry (discussed here), the CMA has now published a Compliance Guide to help fashion businesses “stay on the right side of consumer law”. This is part of the CMA’s “essential” work to ensure consumers can make informed choices based on environmental claims that they can trust.
Continue Reading Time To Tailor Up: Fashion businesses on warning with CMA’s new Compliance Guide for Green Claims
On 3 September 2024, the UK Government published its factsheet on the Great British Energy Bill which received its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 5 September.
The purpose of the Bill is to establish a publicly-owned energy company designed to drive clean energy deployment and support the UK Government’s aim of decarbonising
A major overhaul of the UK’s planning (zoning) system was unveiled on 30 July. This is aimed at tackling the UK’s chronic housing shortage, as well as the challenge of net zero. The lack of affordable housing in the south-east of England, for example, means that average house prices there are ten times the average wage. At the same time, public sector housebuilding has slowed to a trickle and rents have soared. Similarly, the planning system has been identified as a major block on renewables and low-carbon developments in the UK.
In response, the new UK Government has announced significant changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF“) which guides decision-making on individual planning applications as well as the content of local planning policies (against which applications for individual sites are assessed). The main aim is to kick-start an unprecedented programme of housebuilding with a huge proposed target of 371,000 per year against current delivery of about 200,000 units per year. There will also be increased requirements on developers to provide affordable housing on new housing developments. Commentary so far has rightly focused on these important housing-related changes in the draft NPPF, but the draft NPPF goes much further than housing. Specific focus is given to renewables and low-carbon projects, digital technology, gigafactories, laboratories and logistics.
In this briefing, we summarise the main proposed changes in the draft NPPF and identify further likely upcoming reforms to be made to the planning system including through the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Continue Reading UK planning reforms to focus on social developments and net zero
Deforestation is now the second leading cause of climate change globally, after burning fossil fuels, and is responsible for around 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In the last 60 years more than half of tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed, reducing biodiversity and endangering rare species (see Fifth Special Report of Session – 2023-24:
On 16 May 2024, the UK Government published an implementation update on its development of economy-wide sustainability disclosure requirements (the “Implementation Update“). The Implementation Update, which the UK Government committed to publishing in its 2023 Green Finance Strategy (which you can read more about here), discusses:
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA“) has announced that three fashion retailers have signed voluntary undertakings to ensure that consumers have a clearer idea of how green their clothes really are. At the end of March 2024, ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda committed to only make green claims about their products
On 23 April 2024, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“) published its “Finalised non‑handbook guidance on the Anti‑Greenwashing Rule (FG/24/3)” (the “Guidance“). The FCA has published the Guidance to help in-scope firms understand and comply with the anti-greenwashing rule, which will come into effect on 31 May 2024.Continue Reading UK Financial Conduct Authority publishes finalised guidance on its Anti-Greenwashing rule
The UK Government launched a Consultation on the introduction of a UK CBAM on 21 March 2024. The Consultation closes on 13 June 2024. This follows the announcement, in December 2023, that the UK would implement a UK CBAM similar to the EU CBAM which came into effect on 1 October 2023.
In this update