The first of three high-level international symposia on the legal exposures of company directors for climate change damages. The first symposium was held at Lady Margaret Hall, a college within the University of Oxford, on the 8th June 2016. Each symposium facilitated a cross-institutional and cross-jurisdictional exchange of legal thought leadership on director liability risks…

Climate change presents material - if not unparalleled - economic risks and opportunities. These emerging exposures have implications for corporate governance in climate-risk exposed industries (from financial services to mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and beyond), investors (banks, asset owners and managers) and for the insurance sector (professional indemnity and directors' and officers' insurance). Despite these risks,…

CCLI through ClientEarth, together with IIGCC, PRI, CDP, Influence Map and Bentham Europe, co-organised a breakfast seminar to explore the liability risks that climate change poses to companies, and what the law can do to help you to avoid risks and recover losses. Recent high profile corporate scandals involving VW, as well as the collapse…

Panel featuring Prof Mervyn King SC and CCLI's Australian convenor, Sarah Barker (Minter Ellison), hosted by CPA Australia and Melbourne Law School's Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law (CREEL) and Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation (CCLSR). This event explored the changing role of the corporation and how this may play out in…

Alice Garton, part of CCLI, joined a panel examine international developments in the emerging field of climate change litigation. This seminar addresses warnings given in 2015 in a major report by the Prudential Regulation Authority, highlighting potential liabilities for companies and directors in relation to: - contribution to loss and damage caused by anthropogenic climate…

As business steels itself to deal with seismic changes in the world's climate, what is legally expected of directors is becoming more stringent. The Paris Climate talks in December 2015 confirmed what we already knew - that more serious action is required from the corporate world in future. Business leaders must understand how to respond…

Alice Garton, co-investigator at CCLI and Company and Financial Project Leader at ClientEarth, spoke at the FT Climate Finance Summit in London, which gathered some of the leading decision makers, policy makers and investors, to explore the role of international finance in global efforts to combat climate change, as well as the risks and opportunities…

This Roundtable was arranged by Chartered Accountants ANZ and CPA Australia, in cooperation with the Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative (CCLI). The Financial Stability Board (FSB) Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) presented its final Recommendations to the FSB and G20 in Hamburg on 7-8 July, 2017. Whilst 'voluntary', the TCFD Recommendations are an influential…

The 2017 NELA conference brought together a range of experts to discuss the state of Australia’s environment, how various States are addressing past impacts, and innovative mechanisms being explored to avoid future harm. Examining mining rehabilitation, groundwater management, climate risk disclosure, sustainable business practices were among the topics of particular interest.

The symposia highlighted what leading companies are doing to manage climate change risk and to develop opportunities from the policy transition underway to a low-carbon economy. The symposia did involve leading members of Canada's business, law and investment communities to discuss the liability risks to Canadian directors and companies from failing to take seriously the…

This webinar provided an overview of the regulatory landscape in relation to the TCFD recommendations and climate risk, in addition to a detailed analysis of the current situation in Australia and the UK. It helped to generate a better understanding of the duties directors are responsible for, as well as the liability risks they may…

The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) organised two high-level symposia in South Africa on the legal basis for directors and trustees to consider, manage, and report on climate change-related risk, and the circumstances in which they may be liable for failing to do so. These events are relevant to a wide range of organisations…

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 report was launched at a webinar hosted by the Japan Climate Leaders' Partnership, with presentations from the authors of the report, as well as Mr. Satoshi Ikeda (Chief Sustainable Finance Officer, Financial Services Agency of Japan) and Mr. Masami Hasegawa (Director, Environment & Energy Bureau, Keidanren). The combination of speakers provided a valuable diversity…

The legal opinion was launched at a webinar with over 800 attendees in conjunction with the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business at the National University of Singapore and The Law Society of Singapore. Presentations were given by speakers including external speakers Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara (Executive Director & CEO, Temasek International), Dr Michael Hwang,…

The Global Primer was launched in EMEA, Latin America, Asia Pacific and North America. Our supporters for these events included the Canada Climate Law Initiative, Aviva Investors, Chapter Zero UK, Chapter Zero France, Climate Governance Malaysia, the AICD (Australian Institute of Corporate Directors), the New Zealand Institute of Directors, the ICDM (Institute of Corporate Directors…

We discussed the legal opinion and white paper at a webinar co-hosted with the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF). This event was focused on the legal community, which we believe holds a substantial degree of influence over director behaviour, and our range of speakers complemented the aspects by which lawyers can influence their clients,…

The legal opinion and white paper were discussed at a virtual event co-hosted with the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL), part of the University of Hong Kong. Speakers included Christine Lau (Assistant Vice President, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX)), Alex Bidlake (Corporate Partner, Linklaters) and Dr. Emily Lee (Director of AIIFL…