<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

We recently held our third webinar in the series "Sustainability and alternative asset managers: the new normal".

Two climate change related cases made global headlines in recent weeks: a Dutch case, brought by a group of activists, against Royal Dutch Shell that imposed carbon emission limits on the oil producing multinational and an Australian case that found the Minister for the Environment had a duty to protect young people from the effects of climate change. In this article, we look at these decisions in their wider legal context, and consider how the law may continue to develop in this area, including in the UK.

The regulatory technical standards supplementing the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU SFDR)—which had been expected to apply from 1 January 2022—will be delayed by six months until 1 July 2022.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted that new sustainability reporting requirements are on the horizon for pension schemes, financial services firms and their investment products.

On 1 July, which marks the 10th anniversary of the UK's Bribery Act coming into force, the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") secured court approval for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") with Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited ("AFWEL"). This latest DPA concludes yet another significant multi-year corruption probe and highlights the importance of continued ABC compliance measures for multinational organisations.

On 6 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a package of measures intended to help improve the flow of money towards financing the transition to a sustainable economy.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The TCFD Roadmap unfolds

Following the launch in November 2020 of its investigation into potentially misleading environmental claims targeting consumers, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published draft consumer protection law guidance aimed at all businesses making such claims.

In the years leading up to Brexit, both the UK and the European Union had been busy developing sustainability policy and legislation. Now the UK has left the EU, it remains committed to being at the forefront of the sustainable finance agenda.

Earlier this year, we launched a series of webinars on the theme of "Sustainability and alternative asset managers: the new normal".

On 26 April 2021, the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021 ("ACSR") came into force in the UK – the second targeted sanctions regime the UK has introduced in under a year. This follows the July 2020 Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations, which we reported on here.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

On 22 and 23 April 2021, US President Joe Biden hosted a global two-day international climate summit to formally mark the US' return to the Paris Agreement (the "Climate Summit"). The Climate Summit's focus was on starting conversations around how to address the climate crisis in practice, including emission reductions, carbon trading, finance, innovation and job creation, in advance of more formal talks at COP26 later this year. It was the first time in four years that the US government has hosted a major international climate discussion, sending a strong signal to the rest of the world that the US is serious again about tackling climate change.

The European Commission has issued a Sustainable Finance Package comprising the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the legislation integrating sustainability risks into the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive Delegated Regulation, the MiFID II Delegated Regulation and Delegated Directive and the UCITS Delegated Directive. 

On 20 April the UK Government announced that it would significantly increase its climate ambition, ahead of the COP26 international climate summit in Glasgow in November. The UK's Climate Change Act commits it to net zero by 2050, and it recently adopted a new Nationally Determined Contribution ("NDC") under the Paris Agreement of 68% reduction against 1990 levels by 2030.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.