About the conference
Following an opening keynote address from Willem Van de Voorde (Ambassador, Special Envoy for Climate and Environment, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Belgium), the two-day conference programme brought together legal experts from across the globe to explore the critical trends shaping today’s legal sustainability landscape, including diverging approaches to ESG regulation in North America and Europe; likely implications of the EU Omnibus Package; challenges and opportunities posed by the energy transition and escalating climate risks; and impacts of Global North supply chain regulation on Global South jurisdictions, as well as sustainability trends in the fashion and telecommunications sectors.
This year, for the first time, the conference was preceded by a technical primer afternoon session, coordinated by the LPRU. This half day event led with opening remarks from Pascal Durand, Former Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur on the EU CSRD, followed by insights from expert external and in-house advisors, offering practitioners the opportunity to level up their expertise in sustainability reporting and due diligence.
Reflecting on his learnings from the conference, Dino Serafini, ESG & Sustainability Legal Lead at Arendt, Secretary General of AIJA, said: ESG regulatory trends are heading in different directions: decarbonisation and the social-transition economy are boosting ESG interest in the Global South and Eastern jurisdictions, while North America and Europe are pulling back on climate rules. How do we move past opinions and focus on clear, technical legal arguments that help businesses in a time of “polycrisis”? Conferences like this one – which brought together speakers from every continent, industry, and practice area – are a practical way to start. By combining global insights, regulatory updates, and perspectives from both industrial and financial players—small firms and multinationals alike—we can better define what the “level playing field” really means and suggest workable solutions to today’s environmental, social, and governance challenges. As ESG requirements keep changing, private practitioners are essential in guiding clients toward sustainable operations within a stable social framework. At the same time, developing the technical skills of this new “sustainability law” field offers a business opportunity for today’s lawyers and the next generations.
Speaking on the conference, John Vellone, Partner and National Leader, Energy, Resources & Renewables, Borden Ladner Gervais / Chair, ESG Conference Planning Committee / Communications Officer, IBA Power Law Committee, said: ‘As we close this year’s ESG Conference, The Brussels Effect at a Crossroads, we saw that ESG is being reshaped, not abandoned. Despite political headwinds and regulatory divergence across jurisdictions, our discussions in Paris revealed a shared yet tempered optimism across the globe and a continued resolve to shape meaningful ESG frameworks.’