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On Wednesday morning the Chancellor of the UK, Rishi Sunak, reiterated at the start of COP26's Finance Day the UK's plan to become the "first ever net zero aligned financial centre".

In Jones & Ors v Lydon & Ors [2021] EWHC 2322 (Ch), the court confirmed that, where a series of communications is expressed to be made on a "without prejudice" basis, a party must express a clear intention to move the discussions onto an open footing before without prejudice privilege will cease to apply.

Tuesday's big announcement, following swiftly from Monday's commitment to end deforestation by 2030, was that over 100 countries have signed up to dramatically reduce their emissions of methane by supporting the Global Methane Pledge. Though carbon dioxide is often the greenhouse gas that grabs headlines, methane has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is emitted, making its reduction important for short term management of temperature rises. Major sources of methane are the fossil fuel energy sector, agriculture and waste.

The UK's Corporate Justice Coalition ("CJC"), an organisation made up of various UK and international Civil Society Organisations ("CSOs") including Anti-Slavery International, Friends of the Earth and Business Human Rights Resource Centre has recently recommended the implementation of a potentially wide-reaching corporate "failure to prevent" regime targeting negative human rights and environmental impacts. Such a regime would track similar EU proposals relating to the diligence of 'value chains' for ESG failings and malpractice.

With climate change dominating the headlines, at the end of last week, the Government published its response to the March 2021 consultation on mandatory climate-related financial disclosures. The consultation set out proposals for certain publicly quoted companies, large private companies and LLPs to disclose climate-related financial information in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures ("TCFD recommendations"). The response summarises feedback the Government has received on its proposals and confirms that the changes will be implemented largely as set out in the consultation.

Early this morning it was announced that more than 100 world leaders will commit to halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030 at an event due to be convened by the UK at COP26 on Tuesday 2 November 2021.

This briefing was first published in July 2021 and updated in November 2021. 

The Court of Appeal's judgment in Dargamo Holdings Limited v Avonwick Holdings Limited [2021] EWCA Civ 1149^[1] contains important remarks in respect of both the interaction between the law of contract and the law of unjust enrichment, as well as the operation of doctrine of "failure of basis" as a ground of restitution.

Our Autumn Budget website, put together by our colleagues in the Tax team, is live. You can view it here: Autumn Budget 2021 | Travers Smith.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recently published a set of principles setting out how providers of anti-virus software with contracts which auto-renew can best comply with UK consumer protection law. This guidance is also noteworthy for other B2C businesses which use auto-renewal, particularly in an online context.

On 22 October 2021, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published their final report and draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) regarding the content and presentation of taxonomy related disclosures as required by the Taxonomy Regulation and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The Chancellor delivered his Autumn Budget on 27 October 2021.

On 19 October 2021 the UK Government published its eagerly anticipated net zero greenhouse gas emissions strategy (the "Net Zero Strategy"). With just a week to go until COP26, the Net Zero Strategy is in the process of being scrutinised in detail by stakeholders in the UK and from other signatories to the Paris Agreement to gauge how serious the UK is about reaching the agreed goal to limit global warming to well below 2 (preferably to 1.5) degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. In this article we look at some of the key policies and commitments outlined in the Net Zero Strategy and consider how its publication has been received.

At what point does CCTV go from being an acceptable security measure to an infringement of others' privacy – or even unlawful harassment? A recent case provides useful guidance on the position and highlights the key issues that businesses need to consider.

Certain buy side market participants, including pension schemes and asset managers, will be required under EMIR/UK EMIR to exchange initial margin on most of their uncleared OTC derivatives transactions from 1 September 2022. Your pension scheme will be affected by this upcoming regulatory requirement if it uses uncleared OTC derivatives with an aggregate notional amount above EUR8bn.

The High Court has dismissed a challenge to Caffe Nero's company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in Young v Nero Holdings Limited.  The Applicant in the proceedings, Mr Young, was a landlord of premises let to the First Respondent, Nero Holdings Limited (the Company) and challenged the Company's CVA under s 6(1)(a) and (b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act). Mr Young alleged that the Company's CVA was unfairly prejudicial to the rights of creditors and that the procedure and circumstances around the approval of the CVA were materially irregular.  

On 18 October 2021, with just under two weeks to go before the UK hosts COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference 2021 in Glasgow, HM Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a joint paper entitled Greening Finance: A Roadmap to Sustainable Investing (the Roadmap).

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

On 12 October 2021 the English High Court ruled that interest rate swaps executed between Deutsche Bank AG London ("Deutsche Bank") and the Italian municipality Comune di Busto Arsizio ("Busto") in mid-2007 were valid and binding, obliging Busto to maintain its payments to the bank up to the conclusion of the swaps in 2031.