Our knowledge resources reflect the breadth and depth of our expertise, our insight into the issues which matter to your business, and our understanding of the markets in which you operate.
The Government has published legislation giving it wide-ranging powers to revoke or reform retained EU law. Among other things, it includes a proposal for the majority of retained EU legislation to expire at the end of 2023, unless expressly preserved in some form.
In this video series, our cross-disciplinary team of market-leading experts unpack some of the key ESG issues that corporates and counsel alike will need to be aware of when developing their own sustainability strategies.
In July 2022, the FCA published its review of the climate-related disclosures of premium listed commercial companies, for the first time since the rule mandating such disclosures was introduced for a wider range of listed issuers on 1 January 2022.
Our ESG timeline archive sets out past UK and EU legal and regulatory developments relating to ESG and wider sustainable business topics from January 2021 onwards. As with the main timeline, the timeline archive can be filtered according to your business type or the relevant ESG theme.
Can't find what you're looking for?
TRY HERE
Since the Supreme Court's rulings in Vedanta Resources Plc v Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20 ("Vedanta") and HRH Emere Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell [2021] UKSC 3 ("Okpabi"), much has been written about the potential impact these decisions may have on UK-domiciled businesses with foreign operations and, in particular, how they will assist claimants who wish to initiate large-scale group litigation.
Travers Smith LLP has advised Storeshield Limited, a subsidiary of the BOC Group, on the sale of Gist to Marks & Spencer. Gist is a contract logistics business with approximately 5,800 employees across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The High Court has ruled that the UK Government's Net Zero Strategy breaches its obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008. The ruling took place on 18 July 2022, following a case brought by Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth (inter alia), who alleged that the Government failed to produce detailed climate policies to show how the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets will be met, in line with its obligations under the Climate Change Act.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
The EU continues to beat a path to a more sustainable future. Nothing too new there, perhaps, but it is increasingly determined to bring the rest of the world along with it. It first proposed a directive on corporate sustainability reporting ("CSRD") in February 2021, which when proposed caused a stir for the significant expansion of non-financial information obligations on non-listed corporates.
Further to our previous article here, the SFO has now secured a conviction against Glencore on seven counts of international bribery. The successful prosecution makes Glencore the first company to admit to bribing a person under the Bribery Act and is the SFO’s third corporate conviction under these rules.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recommended legislating to impose a positive obligation on consumer-facing businesses to disclose information about the environmental impact of their products. It has also recommended changes designed to make it easier to enforce consumer law against companies making misleading environmental claims, to allow orders to be made requiring businesses to make redress payments for environmental harm and to increase supply chain transparency.
Glencore has indicated that it will plead guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with its oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan. The Serious Fraud Office opened its investigation into Glencore's activities in 2019 and alleges that the commodities giant approved the payment of over $25m in bribes for preferential access to oil.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
ESG and sustainability issues continue to be a priority for policy makers and regulators globally. The impact of the Ukraine conflict on energy policy and the recent publication of the IPCC's (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) "state of the union" report on the slender window we have to take action in order to meet our climate targets both highlight the scale of the global challenge we face on climate issues.
With claimants around the globe continuing to bring novel and ambitious climate change-related cases before common law Courts, some judges are hesitant to be drawn into what may be perceived as a political debate.
In pursuit of its commitment to prevent all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042, the UK Government has recently begun to impose a tax on the manufacture and import of significant volumes of plastic packaging which does not contain a minimum amount of recycled content. The aim of the tax is to increase demand for recycled plastics, creating an incentive to collect and recycle plastic waste and divert it away from landfill and incineration.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
In the fifth episode of the series, Knowledge Counsel Jonathan Rush looks at the impact of Brexit on UK law.