Following negotiations with the United States, the Netherlands in January 2023 agreed to impose controls on the export of certain semiconductors and related products to China....more
G7 governments continue to seek ways to increase the effectiveness of their sanctions on Russia by clamping down on sanctions circumvention....more
When the European Parliament announced that political agreement on the EU Green Bond Regulation (the Regulation) had been reached with the Council on 28 February 2023, rapporteur Paul Tang was quoted as saying...more
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings are increasingly used by investors, lenders and regulators to assess the sustainability performance of companies. They can, for example, assess an entity’s exposure to, and...more
On 17 May 2023, the EU Regulation establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (the CBAM Regulation) came into force. The CBAM Regulation will become applicable in phases, with provisions applying from 1 October 2023, 31...more
In a judgment handed down on 12 May 2023, the English High Court has refused permission for UK environmental NGO ClientEarth to continue “derivative claims” on behalf of Shell against its directors in connection with their...more
In what was dubbed ‘Energy Security Day’, on 30 March 2023, the UK Government released an extensive suite of publications outlining plans to support the country’s legally binding net-zero target by 2050. This included the...more
The UK announced on the 31 March 2023 that it had reached an agreement to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (the CPTPP). The CPTPP is a free trade agreement (FTA) with 11 members...more
Recent policy and regulatory developments have shown that governments and businesses around the world are increasingly focused on consolidating their competitive positions in the green industrial revolution. Significant...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 27 January 2023, 11,317 individuals and 17 institutions from the Ogale community in Nigeria filed claims against Shell Plc (Shell) for its alleged role in oil spills in the Niger Delta....more
Updated guidance regarding the enforcement of financial sanctions from the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) was published on 16 March 2023. The guidance, which sits alongside OFSI’s general guidance on...more
The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published updated guidance regarding the enforcement of financial sanctions on 16 March 2023. The guidance, which sits alongside OFSI’s general guidance on...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
In January 2023, the Netherlands and Japan agreed with the United States to impose controls on the export of certain semiconductors and related products to China. This followed a push by the Biden Administration to ensure...more
Following an intense and lengthy period of speculation, on 8 February 2023 the UK Government confirmed the introduction of a new “failure to prevent” corporate criminal offence. The new offence will be introduced by way of...more
To mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU and the UK, in parallel with other G7 members, released a new round of sanctions against Russia. In this bulletin we provide a high-level...more
ClientEarth (an environmental charity) is challenging a decision by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) to approve a prospectus of an energy company on the basis that it contains inadequate climate-related...more
The High Court in London has issued a number of judgments in recent weeks that consider the implications of the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia in the last 12 months. In this article, we provide an overview of the...more
Dispute resolution in relation to international trade disputes continues to progress in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) system even in the absence of a functioning Appellate Body....more
The UK's National Security and Investment Act 2021 (the NSIA) came fully into force on 4 January 2022, with retrospective effect on certain transactions entered into or completed on or after 12 November 2020. In this article...more
Operators and traders of commodities such as coffee, cocoa and wood should start preparing for the new EU Regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. The new Regulation requires detailed due diligence to be undertaken to...more
The ESG reporting landscape has accelerated significantly in the past five years, with the nature and scale of reporting requirements changing. This article discusses recent trends around entity-level and product-level...more
At the close of 2022, and with the war in Ukraine entering its tenth month, the EU and the UK adopted further sanctions packages against Russia.
The latest sanctions packages include further asset freezes, an EU...more
With a ninth sanctions package against Russia in the making, the EU’s sustained response to the war in Ukraine has demonstrated that sanctions will remain at the forefront of EU policymaking. The array of sanctions adopted...more