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Under the Australian Corporations Act, nature-related risks are within the scope of directors’ duties to act with care and diligence, according to a new legal opinion dated 24 October 2023.
Authored by Sebastian Hartford-Davis and Zoe Bush, the opinion ‘Nature-related risks and directors' duties’ concluded that nature-related risks to a company should be regarded as…
Author: Alex Cooper
Date: 15 May 2023
On Friday 12 May 2023, the High Court refused permission for the UK environmental NGO to continue its derivative action against the board of Shell plc, according to reporting by ESG Today. This is an initial order by the court, and developments in the case will not stop…
28 November 2022, London – Directors of Philippine for-profit corporations must take into consideration climate change-related risks in the discharge of their fiduciary duties of obedience and diligence to fulfil their companies’ long-term legal, economic, moral and social obligations towards their shareholders and other stakeholders. Directors must do so in order to abide by the…
29 July 2022 - The Climate Governance Initiative (CGI), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), today is proud to issue the second edition to the Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations. This edition provides the latest information for board members around the world on their legal obligations in…
26 July 2022 - Directors of Malaysian companies are legally required to incorporate climate change considerations into their decision-making processes, according to a legal opinion released on 26 July 2022. A failure to do so may be a breach of a director’s legal duties and could expose them to litigation from shareholders or enforcement action from the regulatory authorities.
Tan…
1 November 2021 – Directors of Hong Kong-incorporated companies are obliged to take climate risk into account in the discharge of their obligations to the company or face the potential for personal liability, warns a new legal opinion.
Commissioned by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), the legal opinion, 'Directors’ Duties and Disclosure…
20 October 2021 – Directors of Delaware companies could face civil liability for failing to consider climate change, warns a new legal analysis from the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative. The executive summary of the legal analysis can be read here, and the full paper is available here.
The new legal analysis finds that,…
16 September 2021 – Directors of Indian companies could face civil or penal liability for failing to consider climate change, warns a new legal opinion from Mr. Shyam Divan, a Senior Advocate who practices before the Supreme Court of India.
Indian law requires directors to act in the best interests of the environment, which…
24 June 2021 – A new legal Primer produced jointly by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative and the Climate Governance Initiative (CGI), examines the fast-changing landscape of climate risks and opportunities for business, and the implications for board directors’ legal obligations. The Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations, which examines 20…
26 May 2021 - Canadian pension trustees are the latest to receive a warning that they must consider climate change as part of their legal responsibilities, joining their peers in the UK, Australia and South Africa that have been put on notice in recent years by influential legal opinions.
The Canada Climate Law Initiative has…
14 April 2021 - Company directors in Singapore could face personal liability if they fail to take action to address climate change risks, according to a new legal opinion by a team of independent legal counsel.
The legal analysis found that Singaporean directors are obliged to consider climate change impacts as part of their duties…
government to the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, the CCLI’s Dr Janis Sarra published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail outlining why businesses want certainty on carbon pricing – not constitutional challenges.
Australia has followed the lead of Europe, the UK and Canada with the establishment of a new high-level collaboration of industry experts tasked with developing a sustainable finance roadmap for Australia’s economy.
Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards: Guiding principles and questions, highlighting that company directors have a crucial role to play in addressing the disruptive effects of climate change on business. The white paper will help drive the conversation on climate change and business at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of heads of state…
The New York Attorney General yesterday announced a lawsuit against ExxonMobil for allegedly misleading investors of the risks that climate change regulations posed to its business.
CCLI Canadian Convenor Professor Cynthia Williams has given evidence at the New York hearing of the world’s first national inquiry into the human rights impacts of climate change. The fact-finding inquiry by the Philippines Commission on Human Rights is investigating the potential human rights impacts on Filipino citizens of the carbon-intensive businesses of 47 multinational…
To avoid the risk of inadequate disclosures which capture the attention of regulators and potential litigants, companies should be disclosing in accordance with the recommendations of the G20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, argue CCLI Canada convenor Professor Cynthia Williams and Director Ellie Mulholland in a post on the Harvard Law…
CCLI South Africa convenor Christine Reddell recently featured on a panel on directors’ duties and climate change hosted by the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa.
CCLI Australian convenor Sarah Barker and advisory board member Dr John Purcell featured in an INTHEBLACK article on the increasingly tough scrutiny company directors face over how they recognise and account for climate change risk.
In the webinar, the CCLI’s convenors Sarah Barker and Alexia Staker explain how directors’ duties apply to the management and disclosure of risks and opportunities from the impacts of climate change under UK and Australian law
An international initiative examining the legal basis for company directors to take account of climate risk has appointed an award-winning Australian lawyer, Ellie Mulholland, as its first Director.
Australian media have recently covered the CCLI country papers released around in April 2017 around CHOGM 2018.
To coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in April 2018, the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) launched and published a series of research reports, including an actionable framework for directors to integrate climate change issues into governance practice and policy recommendations for directors’ associations and financial regulators.
The Australian flagship current affairs TV program FourCorners (ABC) did a story on climate risk on 5 March 2018, with Sarah Barker featured as the business and investment expert.
One of our Canada convenors, Prof. Cynthia Williams, published a piece in the The Lawyer’s Daily on climate litigation and the risks it represents for companies and investors.
We are excited to announce that Ceres, a sustainability organization working with influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy, has joined the CCLI in December 2017.
ClientEarth, one of the founding partners of the CCLI has released three new reports bringing to light climate liability risks facing pensions advisers and the professional liability risks for auditors in the context of climate change.
Building upon previous conferences held in Oxford, UK and Melbourne, Australia, the CCLI recently organised two events to introduce Canadian stakeholders to the risk of climate liabilities for company directors.
o meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets. Dr Ben Caldecott joins other industry experts, including Nikhil Rathi, CEO, London Stock Exchange and Michael Sheren, Senior Adviser, Bank of England.
EF BRIEFS: Goldman Sachs, Moody’s, Oxford SSEE – Environmental Finance
Green investment opportunities have become “too big to ignore”, according to a report by Goldman Sachs.
New initiative plans to help investors take polluting firms to court – The Guardian
Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative will lay out risks to financial returns amid increasing government curbs on emissions
Legal liability risks from climate change for British, Australian, Canadian and South African company directors and pension fund trustees will be assessed under a new Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative (CCLI) launched during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta today today.
New ‘Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative’ unveiled – Responsible Investor
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