Other authors: Kirsty Morris
The House of Commons’ Joint Committee on Human Rights (the “Committee”) has launched a new inquiry to examine the UK’s current framework in relation to forced labour in international supply chains1. The Committee is seeking to establish if the current framework is effective in managing the risk of exposure
Other authors: Dušan Stojković
On 26 February 2025, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its “Omnibus I” or “Sustainability Omnibus” package as part of its mission to improve the competitiveness of the European Union. The Omnibus Package foresees changes to several EU instruments pertaining to sustainability reporting under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) and Taxonomy Regulation,
The Brazilian National Council of Justice (CNJ) has recently issued Recommendation No. 156/2024, advising all branches of the Brazilian Judiciary and judges to adopt the second scope of the CNJ’s Protocol for Judging Environmental Lawsuits (Protocol). This second scope provides guidelines for quantifying the impact of environmental damages on climate change. In 2023, the CNJ
On 19 November 2024, the Council of the European Union (“Council”) adopted a new regulation on environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating activities.1 The new regulation, which was presented by the European Commission on 13 June 2023, aims to make ESG rating activities in the EU more consistent, transparent and comparable.2 This
Other contributor: Jan Buschfeld
On 12 November 2024, a Dutch appeals court ruled that Shell does not have to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, as previously ordered by the Hague District Court on 26 May 2021. Shell now has the right to adjust its own emissions reductions targets
In a significant development for EU corporate sustainability legislation, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans to merge three cornerstone sustainability frameworks – the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Taxonomy Regulation – through so-called omnibus legislation.
While the Commission maintains this consolidation aims
On November 11, 2024, one of the first substantive outcomes of the 29th Session of the UN Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was approved. The President of COP19 introduced a draft decision of the Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the
On 15 October, the UK’s independent public spending watchdog (the National Audit Office or NAO) published its overview of the Government’s approach to the three areas of environmental improvement, net zero and climate change adaptation.
The report provides a high-level critique of Government programmes to date on these three interrelated areas emphasising the scale of
On October 8 2024, Brazil enacted Federal Law No. 14,993/2024, which stems from Bill No. 528/2020, the “Fuels of the Future Bill.” The new law, which addresses several matters related to decarbonization, provides for the regulation and inspection of activities involving the capture and geological storage of carbon dioxide, also known as CCS (Carbon Capture
On 2 October 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) made public its proposal to postpone application of the EU Deforestation Regulation (“EUDR”), by way of an amendment to the EUDR that would postpone (a) its date of entry into application from 30 December 2024 to 30 December 2025 (and till 30 June 2026 for small and