The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its final Green Agreements Guidance on how UK antitrust rules apply to green cooperation agreements between competitors (UK Green Guidance).
The UK Green Guidance...more
10/19/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Climate Change ,
Competition ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Sustainability ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
After facing criticism for restricting various benign overt actions of non-UK organisations, businesses and charities, the FIRS was narrowed before the Bill received Royal Assent on 11 July 2023....more
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 Commission has launched a far reaching consultation and review of SFDR, long expected by the industry. This bulletin provides an overview, as well as giving thought as to what we might see in terms of SFDR 2.0....more
9/25/2023
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Investment ,
Investment Management ,
Investors ,
Regulatory Reform ,
SFDR ,
Sustainable Finance ,
Taxonomy ,
UK
Sanctions and the systems and controls companies have in place to comply with them seem to be back in the spotlight.
In addition to guidance recently published by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, a number of recent...more
9/12/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
HMRC ,
International Arbitration ,
International Litigation ,
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sanctions ,
UK
Three decisions in recent weeks have demonstrated the breadth of the UK Government’s sanctions-related powers and underline a push by the UK to demonstrate the robustness of its sanctions and a focus on their enforcement....more
9/8/2023
/ Asset Freeze ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Export Controls ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
HMRC ,
Russia ,
Trade Relations ,
UK
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
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
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
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 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
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
The UK Government has introduced two further packages of sanctions against Russia in quick succession....more
At COP26 last year, the Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned the financial services industry that it was time to “walk the walk”, and emphasised that greenwashing would not be tolerated in the...more
On 8 September 2022, the UK Government introduced the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) by way of amendment to the National Security Bill (the Bill)....more
The UK National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSIA) has been in force for over six months. We know that within the first three months, the UK government received 221 notifications and “called-in” 17 deals for a more...more
In the past week, the UK has further tightened its sanctions targeting Russia. The new sanctions include the introduction of new trade-related restrictions on a wide variety of goods (including gold, oil, coal and “G7...more
In the past weeks, the UK and EU regulatory authorities have made a series of announcements in relation to the enforcement of sanctions....more