by Beth Salt | Nov 6, 2023 | LSA Insights
By Jenni Ramos, Lawyer – Corporate/Finance and Biodiversity, Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative.
In mid-October the Commonwealth Climate Law Initiative (CCLI) delivered a workshop with the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) on biodiversity risk for companies and organisations. This was the first part of a two-part series, the second, on the 15th November, will cover biodiversity risk in legal advice.
The workshop was a real eye-opener for me in demonstrating that the link between biodiversity loss and our work as lawyers is as real and deep as our impact on the climate crisis. Our opportunities to influence and bring about change through our work with clients is just as great. We’ve known for ages that the two are interlinked but the workshop helps to show that we can and must broaden our ambition away from a sole focus on carbon reduction and apply the same principles and approach that law firms are developing to the challenge of biodiversity loss.
David Berry, Partner & General Counsel, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
Both workshops feature key messages from the CCLI’s December 2022 report ‘Biodiversity Risk: Legal Implications for Companies and their Directors’ (summarised in this short update).
Biodiversity (the variability among living organisms) is a characteristic of nature that underpins the resilience of ecosystems, which provide services to business and society, known as ‘ecosystem services’. Ecosystem services can be provisioning services (e.g. crops, wood or water), regulating and maintenance services (e.g. water flow regulation or pollination) or cultural services (e.g. recreation).
All of global GDP is somewhat dependent on nature, and for over half the economy this dependence is moderate to high. This dependence is often hidden in complex value chains spanning the globe. There is international consensus on the financial materiality of biodiversity risk, ranked by the World Economic Forum as the fourth most severe risk in the next 10 years and a facet of existing risk categories, manifesting as both physical and transition risks. Biodiversity-related business opportunities (e.g. value chain resilience, identifying new products/services, responding to changing consumer and employee preferences, increased investor/lender confidence or access to new capital) may not be discovered without considering how each business interacts with biodiversity.
An example of the biodiversity risk and life cycle of the construction trade:
Biodiversity risks and opportunities arise through a company’s impacts and dependencies on ecosystems. Directors’ duties to promote the success of the company and to exercise reasonable care and diligence may require oversight of material biodiversity related risks, including in the context of disclosure and financial reports. Last week, Australian national news and the FT’s Moral Money featured an independent legal opinion by Sebastian Hartford-Davis and Zoe Bush which concluded that nature-related risks to Australian companies should be regarded as foreseeable now. The opinion recommended that directors of Australian companies need to identify their company’s dependencies and impacts on nature and consider potential risks these pose to the company. Similar conclusions could be drawn in other common law jurisdictions such as the UK.
Participants at last month’s workshop explored what this means in practice for law firms and clients as organisations that have impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. We explored the value chain of the legal industry and a hypothetical client, analysing where each organisation might indirectly be dependent and impact upon biodiversity. We discovered that the legal sector is indirectly dependent on ecosystem services through its office buildings (through embedded impacts of its construction and ongoing use), the utilities, paper, furniture, textiles and information technology hardware used when delivering its services, food served to clients, work related travel (both the energy used to travel and vehicle components) and the operation of software and storage of electronic information. Through all these value chain connections the legal sector also impacts on biodiversity and plays a role in ecosystem degradation. This is even without the legal sector’s potential ‘advised nature impacts’ (similar to advised emissions – see the Legal Charter 1.5’s Principle 2, The Law Society’s climate change guidance and an Uncertain Solicitor guest post). A brief look at client sectors such as real estate, pharmaceuticals and construction discovered an even larger range of impacts and dependencies, including those arising from agricultural and mining raw materials.
Next steps for lawyers could include running their own workshop with colleagues and clients to explore organisational biodiversity impacts and dependencies or attending our 15th November workshop to look at biodiversity risk through a legal advice lens. Participants will engage in practical exercises identifying biodiversity liability risks in a fictional case study and managing biodiversity risk with contract clauses.
by Beth Salt | Sep 25, 2023 | LSA Insights, Members News, Webinar
Matt Sparkes, co-chair of the LSA and Sustainability Director at Linklaters, spent last week at Climate Week NYC. We asked him for his thoughts…
Let’s get the irony over before we begin. Yes, there is some absurdity in travelling thousands of miles to bump into those who work just across the street and, yes, hours in a plane is, well…
Truth is, if we were not here in person, we would not find the time to talk, to listen and to learn. We wouldn’t be exposed to new developments, to get a feel for others’ progress and to strike new connections that may or may not be the partnerships of tomorrow. I would not now know – or be reflecting upon – the challenges of turning a city (Bristol) green. I would still be underplaying the importance of governance in a Just Transition. I would still be believing that everyone else knows that much more.
It has been a vibrant, eclectic and chaotic week. The United Nations Global Compact Leaders’ Summit was a platform for launches and celebrations of topics ranging from a living wage to corruption and from human rights to, of course, climate change. It was vast in range and vast in scale (and perhaps too vast for workshops, if truth be told). By contrast, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ‘Goalkeepers’ event was tightly-packed, brightly-coloured and unrelentingly moving as it showcased again and again how the SDGs really must be addressed. Alongside these was a thoughtfully curated Climate Action event which, with an eye to #COP, presented a good case as to why the bandwagon should relocate in its entirety to Dubai in a few more weeks. And that is why these things are tricky. In a virtual world where attention is hard to maintain, even without the cover of ‘camera off’, there is no substitute for meeting face-to-face and being focused and engaged throughout. Those moments where you bump into colleagues and have time to chat and those sessions where you really can follow up with questions, discussion and dates in the diary.
Perhaps we shouldn’t need to go far, far away to achieve these things but that’s the way it is and I’ll be heading home energised by conversation, reacquainted with some bright and engaging people and ready to pick up the baton once again. Bouncing from one capital’s conference centre to another (as many still seem to do) does seem an odd way of making progress but, for those of us for whom this is rather more annual, it is an injection of insight, energy and, yes, hope and we all need more of that every so often, don’t we?
About Matt Sparkes
Matt is co-chair of the LSA and Sustainability Director at Linklaters. Matt leads Linklaters work on responsible business globally, ensuring that the firm’s own ESG performance reflects all stakeholder expectations and the advice provided to clients on many related themes. Matt is active in a range of sustainability networks including as EMEA Chair of Business for Societal Impact and as co-chair of the Legal Sustainability Alliance. He is also a Board Member and Trustee of the UNGC-UK Network, is vice-chair of the Living Wage Foundation and, in his spare time, was until recently proud to act as chair of an east London employability charity.
by tess | Mar 11, 2022 | LSA Insights, Members News
The Law Society has issued an important statement on Ukraine which the LSA endorses and which is reproduced below. The statement can also be accessed via the Law Society website here.
The Law Society of England and Wales president Stephanie Boyce said:
“The Law Society stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian National Bar Association and the Ukrainian Bar Association. We also stand with the Russian people who oppose their government’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and lawyers who are defending the rule of law in the region.
“We condemn the actions of the Russian Federation, which are in contravention of international law. There is no doubt that these actions are a direct threat to the rule of law.
“We continue to support our members in the region at this difficult time.”
by tess | Mar 2, 2022 | LSA Insights
Source:UNEP Press Release 02.03.22
On 2 March 2022 Heads of State, Ministers of environment and other representatives from 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) today in Nairobi to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.
President of UNEA-5 and Norway’s Minister for Climate and the Environment Espen Barth Eide stated “Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best. Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic. With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.”
The resolution, based on three initial draft resolutions from various nations, establishes an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), which will begin its work in 2022, with the ambition of completing a draft global legally binding agreement by the end of 2024. It is expected to present a legally binding instrument, which would reflect diverse alternatives to address the full lifecycle of plastics, the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials, and the need for enhanced international collaboration to facilitate access to technology, capacity building and scientific and technical cooperation.
The treaty reflects the growing challenge of tackling plastic pollution:
Plastic production soared from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at US$522.6 billion, and it is expected to double in capacity by 2040. The impacts of plastic production and pollution on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution are a catastrophe in the making:
by tess | Apr 27, 2021 | LSA Insights
Preparing for COP26? The Climate Papers is a series of podcasts brought to you by the COP26 Universities Network; a network of more than 55 UK universities coordinated by The Grantham Institute at Imperial College, working together to support ambitious outcomes for climate action at COP26 and beyond. Each podcast explores a topic in one of the COP26 Universities Network’s briefing papers, which can be found here (https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/cop26/briefings/)
by tess | Sep 9, 2020 | LSA Insights
16-year-old Dara McAnulty wins the Prize for Nature Writing and Benedict Macdonald wins first ever Writing on Global Conservation Prize
The winner for the much-loved Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing has been announced at a virtual awards ceremony on September 8th. Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty chronicles the turning of the then 15-year-old’s world and breaks the mould of modern nature writing. As the youngest ever winner of a major literary prize, Dara’s book is an extraordinary portrayal of his intense connection to the natural world alongside his perspective as an autistic teenager juggling exams, friendships and a life of campaigning. Mike Parker’s beautiful On the Red Hill was awarded highly commended in the category.
Hear Dara McAnulty sharing his thoughts on winning the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing here
This year’s prize has been extended to include a second category for books about global conservation and climate change, and Rebirding by Benedict Macdonald is its inaugural winner. Praised as ‘visionary’ by conservationists and landowners alike, Rebirding sets out a compelling manifesto for restoring Britain’s wildlife, rewilding its species and restoring rural jobs – to the benefit of all. Irreplaceable by Justin Hoffman was awarded highly commended in the category.
Hear Benedict Macdonald expressing his thanks for winning the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation here
Listen to the stories behind each one of this year’s 13 shortlisted books across the two categories as told by the authors to Planet Pod here
