The European Commission formally adopted its proposals for amending the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) in late February 2025, as part of its highly anticipated sustainability Omnibus package. In this...more
3/10/2025
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Sustainability
At COP29 in Baku, new rules were adopted for carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. These rules are meant to increase the transparency of the country-to-country trading of carbon credits under Article 6.2....more
2/28/2025
/ Carbon Emissions ,
CFTC ,
Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
Germany ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Popular ,
Sustainability
More competitiveness, more coherence and less administrative burden – these are key political priorities for the new European Commission (the Commission) which took office last December. One of the earliest moves under the...more
1/17/2025
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Sustainability ,
Sustainable Business Practices
This is an update to previous bulletins on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) which we published in June and September 2024.
In a decisive move that marks a new chapter for corporate...more
12/17/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
EU Directive ,
Member State ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Sustainability ,
Sustainable Business Practices
In this article, we provide an overview of country-led and private sector-driven key developments surrounding the recent United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16). The world is progressively recognizing that biodiversity...more
11/15/2024
/ Biodiversity ,
Climate Change ,
Contaminated Properties ,
COP ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Private Equity ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sustainable Finance ,
Transparency ,
UK ,
United Nations
Are regulations across the lifecycle of a low-carbon infrastructure project helping or hindering the transition? What structures helping the route to Net Zero have been introduced so far? In which fields is work still to be...more
3/11/2024
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Projects ,
EU ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Net Zero ,
New Legislation ,
Permits ,
Regulatory Reform
With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluding that it will be difficult (and in some cases impossible) to reduce emissions to zero in certain sectors, several hundred million tonnes of CO2 will need to...more
Creating an effective regulatory framework will be critical to deliver Net Zero. But does that mean more – or less – regulation?
From trade agreements to taxonomies, carbon adjustment mechanisms to corporate sustainability...more
3/7/2024
/ Asia Pacific ,
Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Global Economy ,
Global Market ,
Infrastructure ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Management ,
Investors ,
Middle East ,
Net Zero ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sustainability ,
Taxonomy ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
United States
The EU Regulation establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is designed to drive businesses to achieve a true global reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions instead of relocating carbon-intensive production...more
10/3/2023
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Change ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Importers ,
International Trade ,
New Regulations ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Taxation
Until now, however, no comprehensive estimate existed of the of that opportunity, (or, to put it another way, the size of the financing gap between committed spending and the investment needed to deliver Net Zero by 2050...more
9/25/2023
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Investment ,
Investment Management ,
Investors ,
Net Zero ,
Paris Agreement ,
Private Investment Funds ,
Renewable Energy ,
Supply Chain ,
Sustainability ,
Sustainable Finance ,
UK
The EU emissions trading system (the EU ETS) is one of the key pillars of the EU’s policy to combat climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from regulated sectors....more
We recently welcomed a stellar panel of guests to discuss how to drive more private investment in decarbonisation. Ambassador Patricia Espinosa, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,...more
More than 50% of global economic output depends in some way on biodiversity. Frameworks are emerging to measure the impact of business on nature, but the science needs work if they are to succeed....more
Quick reference guide enabling side-by-side comparison of local insights, including the main climate regulations, policies and authorities; national emission levels, limits and emission reduction projects; emission allowances...more
The EU Emissions Trading System (the EU ETS) is one of the key pillars of the EU’s policy to combat climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from regulated sectors....more
On 21 December 2021, the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (the Committee) published its Draft Report on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the...more
As 2021 draws to a close, the European Commission (EC) has been busy. On 15 December 2021, it adopted several new documents in relation to environmental protection in the widest sense.
...more
The EU Taxonomy Regulation has been in force since 2020, but a critical element of the Regulation – the Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) – has yet to be formally agreed. The European Commission’s announcement on 21 April...more
In the past years (and months), there has been a growing wave of climate change litigation cases, and the cases where plaintiffs have (successfully) invoked fundamental rights are increasing. In our previous two articles...more
Following an extensive consultation process, the Equator Principles Association (EP Association) adopted a fourth iteration of the Equator Principles (EP4) on 18 November 2019. Originally, EP4 was due to come into effect on 1...more
In the last quarter of 2020 we published under the auspices of A&O Belgium’s Sustainability Flagship Project, an overview analysing the status of current climate change litigation in courts around the world in light of the...more
On 4 March 2020, the European Commission (the Commission) published a draft EU climate law, along with inception impact assessments for an EU carbon border adjustment mechanism and revisions to the Energy Taxation Directive....more
On 22 September 2014, the International Bar’s Association task force on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights released its new report Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption in the wake of the UN...more