Is My Company Required to Comply with the Paris Agreement?
Nota Bene Episode 33: Congressional Check-In for Q2: Paris Agreement, Presidential Nominees, and Privacy with Elizabeth Frazee
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders on energy and environmental topics that included initiating a US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, a move consistent with his previous...more
US exits Paris Agreement after submitting Nationally Determined Contributions. In mid-December, the Biden Administration announced it submitted the US target under the Paris Agreement: cutting net carbon emissions by 61 to 66...more
On April 5th, 2019, environmental activist group Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth) Netherlands and co-plaintiffs served Shell a court summons alleging Shell’s contributions to climate change violated its duty of care...more
Historically, trade agreements have focused on reducing barriers to trade—such as tariffs and quotas—while encouraging economic integration and growth. Environmental protection was often considered a separate issue, addressed...more
On October 26, 2023, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published a report with recommendations for linking climate-related actions taken by non-state actors (NSAs) to the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) established by...more
On September 8, 2023, the United Nations published its first Global Stocktake report on the progress made by nations in addressing climate change. The report, which represents the first comprehensive assessment of nearly 200...more
In early April, the climate activist shareholder group, Follow This, filed shareholder resolutions seeking stronger energy transition strategies from several oil “super-majors.” The resolutions have been filed in advance of...more
The Net Zero transition will not be smooth. The scale of the investment required and the appetite and ability of countries to implement new policy – both now and in the years to come – will cause unprecedented disruption and...more
The 27th iteration of the Conference of Parties (COP27) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, from Nov. 6–18, 2022. The international climate gathering,...more
The High Court of England and Wales (the “High Court”) recently ruled1 that the U.K. government’s Net Zero Strategy (NZS) breached the detail and reporting requirements of the Climate Change Act 2008 (“CCA 2008”). In this...more
The Need for a Unified Carbon Credit Market - Industries which cannot easily decarbonize would love to be able to claim reductions in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by “offsetting”—creating or buying carbon credits....more
On 15 March 2022, ClientEarth announced that it had written to Shell's board of directors informing them of its intent to bring a claim on behalf of the company for the board's failure to implement a Paris Agreement compliant...more
The global impact of our planet’s changing climate garnered significant attention in 2021. The United States rejoined the Paris Agreement at the beginning of the year, and in November, during the United Nations Climate Change...more
Market participants can expect the initiative’s proposals to offer guidance on setting targets for emissions reduction and decarbonisation. On 12 January 2021, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) published its...more
Last March, I took note of SB 260, a bill that would enact the California Corporate Climate Accountability Act. If enacted, the CCAA would require the State Air Resources Board to promulgate regulations requiring greenhouse...more
In our previous post, we highlighted a number of global goals and campaigns aimed at addressing climate change. In this post, we examine climate change-oriented policies and initiatives that are being adopted by many...more
Accelerate ESG debuts with Akin Gump partners Stacey Mitchell, Ken Markowitz and Naboth van den Broek reviewing the recent UN Climate Change Conference, which Ken and Naboth attended, to offer listeners insights into the...more
In recent weeks, there has been a lot written about the COP26 United Nations Annual Climate Change Conference, which was held in Glasgow, Scotland between October 31 and November 13, 2021. The central goal of the COP26...more
As COP26 spilled over into Saturday, one of the key issues being debated throughout the course of the conference remained outstanding—agreement on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Negotiations on...more
Upon taking office in January, the Biden Administration immediately prioritized climate change and environmental justice, fulfilling President Biden’s campaign promise. In the past two weeks, President Biden reiterated those...more
Key Points - On Earth Day, the Biden-Harris administration announced a new target for the United States to achieve a 50 to 52 percent reduction in economy-wide GHG emissions by 2030, which constitutes the country’s new NDC...more
Over the weekend, major news outlets announced that former Vice President Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Biden and his running mate, Vice Predident-elect Kamala Harris, pledged throughout the...more
The Court of Appeal returned a ruling on 27 February 2020 that the UK government's policy statement which included the government's approval of the Heathrow expansion was unlawful because it did not consider the impact of the...more
Key Points - House Democrats have released draft text for the CLEAN Future Act, a comprehensive climate bill that aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas pollution throughout the United States by 2050 by directing federal...more
The global mining & metals sector is facing one of its most challenging transitions yet, as the industry is considering how it can best position itself to regain and maintain stakeholder confidence on ESG matters. Miners...more