News & Views

Hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network, 'Earth Overshoot Day' marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Determining the date relies on some complex calculations, and as you can expect has been reducing for many years. This year's Overshoot date past us on August 2!

This is a very interesting (frightening) concept which is explained in more detail at the Overshoot Day website HERE.

At a webinar hosted by Greenbiz, join sustainability leaders in discussing how to identify and overcome barriers to setting and meeting science-based scope 3 targets.   During the webinar, Pure Strategies will introduce its Scope 3 Maturity Model which helps sustainability teams identify program improvement strategies in measurement, goal setting, alignment, and disclosure.  See the registration link HERE.

GHG emissions from travel are significant and remain difficult to control as 'policy' is often not backed by automated procedure.

In 2021 EY made a public commitment to reach net-zero by 2025, and, as travel represents more than 70% of their emissions, developed an internal tool the 'Sustainable Travel Approval Tool' (STAT) which takes the emphasis away from cost and puts it squarely on emissions. Read the attached case study from Business Travel News HERE to see how EY are ensuring the proof is in the pudding.

New Zealand has proposed the implementation of Modern Slavery legislation in what is seen as an excellent first step in taking action to fight modern slavery and worker exploitation in supply chains.

Based on legislation from Australia and the UK, the NZ implementation will be stronger as it will include financial penalties for non-compliance and a lower threshold for reporting. See a summary from international Human Rights Group WalkFree HERE.

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.