Tag results for 'Climate-News-Analysis'

Climate crisis: Law firms can have major impact through client work

As the latest UN climate change report issues another stark warning to all industries to limit global emissions, some in the legal profession are attempting to lead the way.

Released on Apr 28, 2022

Climate crisis: next chapter for Greenpeace in North Sea oil action leads 2022’s slate of cases

2022 appears set to be another conspicuous year for environmental and climate litigation cases. Cases in Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and beyond will pit teenagers, farmers, environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their lawyers against governments, banks and energy companies.

Released on Feb 22, 2022

Climate adaptation faces ‘monumental’ underfunding challenge

The COP26 summit raised the bar yet again for state commitment to tackle the climate crisis. The Glasgow Climate Pact set developed countries the unprecedented goal of doubling their funding for climate adaptation measures by 2025.

Released on Feb 21, 2022

Climate crisis: the ‘significant’ role of lawyers in the energy transition

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – or ‘COP26’ – summit in Glasgow runs from 31 October to 12 November and will mark the next critical juncture for global leaders to address the climate crisis. Business – and their lawyers – can no longer take a backseat to the negotiations. Instead, they must be a core part of efforts to accelerate the global energy transition.

Released on Oct 29, 2021

Climate crisis: lawyers help set agenda with COP26 work

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) presents important opportunities for lawyers involved in the summit to help shape the climate action agenda and move it forward.

Released on Oct 27, 2021

Climate crisis: EU’s carbon border levy ‘going to happen’, despite threat of challenges

Even before the European Commission published its long-trailed carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) proposal in July, overseas opposition to the plan was brewing and exporters were nervous. The proposal – which still needs to progress through the European policymaking machine before implementation – was met with the expected outcries from Russia and China, and with nerves in Australia.

Released on Oct 11, 2021

Climate crisis: ‘green’ transition underway in legal sector

While fossil fuel companies and financial institutions have been making headlines with their net zero pledges and promises to change the way they do business, the legal sector has quietly been undergoing its own transition.

Released on Sep 8, 2021

Migration: climate breakdown drives internal displacement to record 55 million

Despite restrictions on movement resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 saw the highest number of people becoming internally displaced in a decade, at 40.5 million. The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) globally reached a record 55 million in December 2020, according to a report from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Released on Aug 12, 2021

Climate crisis drives change in energy sector amid pandemic

As Covid-19 swept the globe in early 2020, many governments brought in stay-at-home orders and lockdowns, leading to a collapse in oil and gas prices as transportation dramatically reduced. The impact was immediately evident, with oil majors posting significant financial losses in 2020 – although early financial results from 2021 have them back in the black as economic activity slowly picks up around the world. Amid the chaos brought by the pandemic, the spotlight has turned to a bigger issue: the climate crisis.

Released on Jul 12, 2021

Climate crisis: Covid-induced economic woes hindering low-carbon transition

Despite global calls to ‘build back better’ following the Covid-19 pandemic, a recent United Nations report has revealed that just 18 per cent of recovery spending is going to measures that enhance sustainability.

Released on May 10, 2021

Climate emergency: elections in spotlight as crucial decade begins

In October, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a historic majority in elections, with her party’s platform including a pledge to achieve a 100 per cent renewable electricity system by 2035. She has since declared a climate emergency and that her government will be carbon neutral by 2025.

Released on Dec 18, 2020

Climate emergency: financial institutions prepare for climate-related stress tests

Stress tests that focus on the impact of climate change are moving up every financial regulator’s agenda. These tests – which show what would happen in various hypothetical situations – are used by regulators to reveal whether banks, building societies and insurance companies hold enough capital to meet sudden and unexpected losses.

Released on Dec 10, 2020

Litigation: Indigenous peoples seek protection of environment and rights in US

In July, the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in McGirt v Oklahoma, which has been hailed as a significant victory for Native Americans, one with implications for their governance over their peoples and lands. The case forms part of a recent trend of notable litigation seeking recognition and protection of Indigenous rights in the US.

Released on Oct 27, 2020

Climate emergency: young people seek to use litigation to force action

In early September, a group of six young people in Portugal filed a complaint against 33 nations with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the ‘Court’), alleging that the respondents have violated their human rights by failing to act fast enough on climate change. It’s the first case of its kind to be filed with the Court, and is indicative of the growing number of young people using the legal system to force faster action on the climate crisis.

Released on Oct 7, 2020

Climate litigation: European rulings set legal precedents for government accountability

In February, the Court of Appeal in England and Wales found plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport unlawful, as they were incompatible with commitments the UK government made in line with the United Nation’s Paris Agreement on climate change. The Court effectively determined that the Paris Agreement constitutes government policy that must be taken into account in accordance with national law, setting a precedent for accountability regarding international climate commitments.

Released on Apr 21, 2020

Comment and analysis - The climate crisis: Latin America’s ‘Lithium triangle’ holds key to a low-carbon future

Today, an average petrol-powered car, which has travelled 150,000 miles, will emit more than 63,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide. By comparison, the carbon dioxide output from batteries recharged from renewable electricity sources is negligible.

Released on Mar 5, 2020

Climate partnerships bolster Paris Agreement despite US withdrawal

Just over a year ago, to no one’s surprise, US President, Donald Trump, announced his intention to withdraw the country from the Paris Agreement on climate change. As the world’s second-largest emitter – behind China – the non-participation of the US in the historic 2015 deal has been widely viewed as a potential disaster. But, despite the move, most governments resolved not to waver in their commitment to the deal. Some in the climate community meanwhile called on US states, businesses and citizens [...]

Released on Aug 31, 2018

Lawyers on the front line: Zuzana Caputova, ‘grassroots environmental hero’

Zuzana Caputova, a public interest lawyer who won a decisive victory in the European Court of Justice over a highly controversial waste pit in Slovakia, was recently awarded the European category of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which honours ‘grassroots environmental heroes’.

Released on Jul 20, 2016

German climate action creates direct consequences for corporates

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) increased the credit rating of Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn in mid-October, following the German parliament’s approval of the country’s first climate legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions and hitting climate change targets ahead of a 2030 deadline.

Global attempts to ban fracking must consider importance of ‘just transition’

At the beginning of November, the British Government announced that fracking was not to proceed in England, following new scientific analysis. The decision comes amid mounting calls for the practice to be banned around the world.

Climate change in Northwest Passage threatens indigenous rights

The Northwest Passage’s Inuit are witnessing a transformation of their environment due to climate change.

Global migration crisis: Climate change poses ‘existential threat to small island states’

In May 2019, eight inhabitants of a group of islands off the northern tip of Queensland launched a claim against the Australian federal government, alleging that it has violated their human rights by failing to address the climate crisis.

Climate change: Geoengineering solutions prompt debate over global regulation

The urgent need to limit global warming means geoengineering technologies are likely to be developed and rolled out on a commercial scale, but experts disagree on the need for a global legal framework to regulate them.

Climate justice: French ‘gilets jaunes’ protests provide lessons for countries transitioning to low-carbon economies

France has experienced months of regular clashes between the ‘gilets jaunes’ protestors and police. Since the first national day of protests on 17 November 2018, yellow-jacketed protestors have barricaded roundabouts across the country and damaged property. The protests have hit the French economy, with motorways closed and hundreds of speed cameras vandalised.

Climate change: energy companies face $25tn risk from carbon bubble

As the world faces major floods, heatwaves and droughts, the scientific case for slashing carbon emissions grows ever stronger. Businesses are now taking notice as mounting evidence points towards a new carbon bubble. Bubbles – financial, dotcom, housing or otherwise – are great for investors, until they burst. Should the carbon bubble burst, as is expected, it would wipe trillions of dollars from the global economy.

Climate change: non-state actors step in where governments refuse to go

It’s been a busy time since the Paris Agreement was finalised at the end of 2015. Governments have continued to grapple with finalising the rules for the Agreement ahead of the deadline for adopting them at December’s annual climate talks. Much of the focus has been on how governments are implementing their pledges, but increasingly non-state actors are filling the void left by leading states, particularly in the wake of President Trump’s rejection of the Paris Agreement.

UN climate talks: challenging agenda ahead

After the high of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the next few years of climate negotiations would always be lower profile – yet just as important. Now that the agreement has been finalised, the hard work to create the rules and guidance it calls for will take time. Two years on, and with only a year remaining until the self-imposed deadline for implementation is upon governments, the November 2017 Conference of the Parties (COP) needed to advance the process.

US presidency: Can the green rollback be rolled back?

President Trump announced in the autumn that America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aims to rescind its Clean Power Plan rule. It was intended to be the linchpin of America’s compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement, though the legislation is yet to take effect. Environmentalists, not just in America but globally, are hoping the courts can save the plan.

US withdrawal from Paris Agreement sparks debate over legal ramifications

In the aftermath of the US leaving the Paris Agreement on climate change, its opponents have been exaggerating its legal effect, and environmentalists playing it down. Trump’s supporters contend that staying in the Agreement could have weakened the US legal position on climate change, both in terms of international damages suits and domestic regulatory actions. Seizing on the plain language of Article 4 of the Agreement, they argue that a nation may only adjust its ‘contributions’ to climate control upward

Climate justice: China’s ‘advanced’ new environmental law

A little over a year ago China’s environment minister, Chen Jining, publicly declared that the country needed environmental laws with ‘iron teeth’. These fine words came as the country introduced its new Environmental Protection Law, brought into force on 1 January 2015. Since its introduction, the relevant ministry in China has imposed daily fines in over 400 environmental cases and has ordered operations to be restricted or stopped in over 1,500 cases.