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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".
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
The last few months have seen several significant developments in relation to tax. Whilst perhaps the most headlines were generated by the OECD’s announcement that agreement has been reached on the introduction of important changes to global corporate tax rules, there have been several noteworthy developments from a domestic tax perspective, including the provision by the UK government of more details of the new tax on residential property developers and the new tax privileged regime for asset holding companies, both of which are due to come into force next April.
Welcome to the third in our series of podcasts focusing on international employment law.
We have now passed the end of the third quarter of 2021, the date set by the Sterling RFR Working Group for the completion of the active transition of financial contracts away from LIBOR. Our briefing in June outlined the roadmap to transition and the progress being made in the cash and derivatives markets.
On 8 October 2021 the OECD updated its statement setting out the framework for international tax reform. The two-pillar plan will require the UK and other OECD members to make major changes to their domestic tax law over the next couple of years.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) recently launched a consultation on reform of UK data protection laws, with the twin objectives of strengthening public trust in the use of data, and helping to drive economic growth and innovation. The consultation builds on the Government's National Data Strategy, published last year which set out plans to build a world leading data economy that works for everyone. 'Unlocking the power of data' is also one of the Government's top 10 tech priorities, and the Government's recently published National AI Strategy also highlights the importance of this consultation and the role of data protection in wider AI governance.