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In late 2023 the UK's Energy Act 2023 was passed into law. It has possibly gone a little under the radar in some quarters, despite being hailed by Ofgem as the most significant and wide-ranging piece of energy legislation in over a decade.
The UK's departure from the European Union has not led to all EU-derived law being jettisoned; on the contrary, a significant proportion of it has been retained. This briefing explains what retained EU law is, why it's important and how it's affected by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023.
The EU is pursuing a number of measures intended to combat misleading environmental claims about products and services aimed at consumers. These initiatives underline the need to ensure that the evidential basis for any green claims is robust.
After months of negotiations, on 14 December, the EU Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on the principles that will underpin the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive ("CS3D").
Our ESG timeline archive sets out past UK and EU legal and regulatory developments relating to ESG and wider sustainable business topics from January 2023 onwards. As with the main timeline, the timeline archive can be filtered according to your business type or the relevant ESG theme.
At the time of our last COP28 update, we were still waiting to hear what the outcomes would be from several key discussion areas that remained open, including the results of the first Global Stocktake ("GST").
After many months of speculation and preparation, COP28 got underway last week in Dubai. As set out in our article prior to COP28 commencing, the conference comes at a crucial time in collective international efforts to tackle the climate crisis, with King Charles emphasising in his address to the conference that "COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action".
Do the policy changes announced by the UK Government in September mean that it is rowing back on its commitment Net Zero? Anyone wanting to understand the UK's Net Zero ambitions may ask how many plans it takes to switch on a light bulb.
On 26 October 2023, the UK's Energy Act 2023 (the "Act") received Royal Assent, becoming one of the largest pieces of energy legislation in a generation. The Act was originally introduced in July 2022 by then Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng as the 'Energy Security Bill'. The Energy Security Bill was reviewed following the resignation of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss before being re-tabled to the House of Lords on 12 December 2022 under its new name, the Energy Act.
In this edition, we highlight the key regulatory and policy developments this Autumn which will impact investors in and operators of energy and infrastructure assets in the UK. Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss any of the issues discussed below.
On 16 March 2023, the EU Commission announced plans for the "Critical Raw Materials Act" (the "CRMA"): a "comprehensive set of actions" designed to ensure long-term access in the EU to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The proposal forms part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, adopted in February 2023, which aims to create a regulatory environment which supports the net-zero transition.
On 1 October 2023, the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism ("CBAM") regulation officially entered into its transitional period, which will run until 31 December 2025. The CBAM is effectively an import tax on carbon-intensive products, such as cement, steel, iron, aluminium and electricity.
Travers Smith LLP has advised Inflexion Private Equity on their investment in aosphere, a legal and compliance data subscription platform. As part of the transaction, Inflexion's Partnership Capital II fund will make a strategic investment alongside Allen & Overy ("A&O") and Endicott Capital, a US-based investor specialising in the information services industry.
The EU continues to pursue a rapid and ambitious legislative programme around environmental regulation. Its regulations in the product space have in many respects and for many years been viewed by multinational manufacturers as the "gold standard" and therefore the de facto rules to which all products destined for international sales must adhere.
The controversial legislation to enable the Government to revoke or reform retained EU law (the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act or REUL Act) has now Received Royal Assent. Although some of the most heavily criticised aspects of the legislation have been removed, it will still create a climate of uncertainty around retained EU law.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have come to the fore of real estate investment strategy during recent years. In the first of our briefings on this topic, we consider three developments in legislation in the "E" space and how those developments present challenges but also opportunities for the care home and senior living sectors to contribute to the overall debate on how to implement "E" objectives within the built environment.