News & Views

The UN Environment Program (UNEP), have released their Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, and note that the total number of climate change court cases has more than doubled since 2017. The report is based on a review of cases focused on climate change law, policy or science collected up to 31 December 2022 by the Sabin Center’s US and Global Climate Change Litigation Databases. Read a summary of the review HERE, as well as a selection of  some historic breakthroughs during the past two years.

As businesses continue to place greater importance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, paving the way for areas like renewable energy are going to expand - an area of already massive growth in the legal profession.This is an area of law that is only going to expand and as more organisations put ESG on their agenda it is likely to be here to stay.

See what several AusLSA firm members have to say about how Renewables "law" is affecting their firms in the Lawyers Weekly article HERE.

In his address to the 2023 Clean Energy Summit, Minister Chris Bowen announced that decarbonisation plans would be developed for sectors including electricity and energy, industry (including waste), the built environment, agriculture and land, transport and resources, with circular economy considered in all.

Decarbonisation plans are crucial for laying the pathway for emission reductions, particularly ahead of Australia increasing its national emissions reduction targets for 2035. See more details of this plan in an article from Climateworks HERE.

In 2024, $525 billion company Amazon will commence the process of asking their supply chains to be more responsible and commence disclosing emissions and setting targets. In an acknowledgement of their muscle, Amazon say  that they will use their "scale, investment and innovation to date to provide our suppliers with products and tools that will help them reach their goals".

Read more about this and Amazon's carbon footprint reductions in an article from GreenBiz HERE.

The United Nations Secretary-General will be convening a Climate Ambition Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2023.

The Summit represents a critical political milestone for demonstrating that there is collective global will to accelerate the pace and scale of a just transition to a more equitable renewable-energy based, climate-resilient global economy. There will be three main themes at the Summit: Ambition, Credibility and Implementation which are critical to immediate deep reductions in emissions. Read about the Summit HERE

Commencing in 2024, Treasury plans to introduce a mandatory climate-related financial disclosure framework. The framework hopes to help Australian companies and investors maximise economic opportunities in the shift to a greener economy and to manage climate risks. As part of the consultation process, Treasury asks businesses if  the coverage, content, framework, and liability are workable. Read more about this consultation process HERE.

98% of CEOs believe it is their role to make their businesses more sustainable, but 58% see sustainability locked in conflict with growth. Sustainability is a growing force for change, but it is often met by headwinds that create a perception that sustainability inhibits profitability. Building a sustainable business requires slow evolution, not revolution, and the case for 'business as usual' may prove more costly.

See a great research report from Accenture HERE.

Supply chain emissions represent the largest source of emissions from companies - and on average are 11.4 times larger than direct emissions. The SBTi has released new guidelines and in order for companies to be in line with this criteria, they must set scope 3 targets - that is, supplier engagement targets and/or reduction targets that collectively cover at least 67% of total scope 3 emissions. The SBTi guide to achieving scope 3 supplier engagement targets includes a full set of materials and resources for companies to use when engaging their suppliers around science-based targets and can be found HERE.

In a recent report released by Kincentric, it was revealed that teams that are working in an inclusive environment are four times more likely to navigate tough issues and twice as likely to stay with their employer. Kincentric says that inclusion cannot be ignored, and being a part of an inclusive workplace made 80 per cent of employees feel like they belong, and 87 per cent recorded higher engagement. See the lead story about this from HR Leader HERE.

The consideration of planetary boundaries and biodiversity is new to most companies and public awareness of this has only recently become mainstream following COP15 in 2022. Only now is it starting to be incorporated into non-financial reporting frameworks. Given there is still no consensus on biodiversity-related terminology, with methodologies and regulations rapidly evolving to standardise these concepts, how difficult is it to quantify a companies biodiversity footprint and its impact on ecosystems?. See an article HERE from Ecoact, which might help.