Joining William Powell and Joseph Murphy of Natural Gas World, Lewis McDonald discusses what the future now looks like in terms of investments in energy, namely oil and gas. Given the burgeoning global population, rising standards of living and climate goals, there has been a serious increase in awareness and concern in global climate change around the world.
The environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda is now at the top of many companies’ priorities though currently appearing to mainly affect companies in Europe and less so in Asia. Prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, ESG was the major issue being discussed in board rooms. With about 12,000 entities, together controlling around $14 trillion, divesting or wanting to divest from fossil fuels primarily based on consumer demand and consumer sentiment and where the laws and regulation are heading, we have seen rather a chilling effect on investment in the oil and gas sector – and the big question is ... where does it all go from here… Read more
We are well into the pandemic and lockdown in many regions, so it is natural to ask the question, “when will this end and when will we return to normal”... The problem is, “normal” was not sustainable, in so many ways. Those of us in the energy industry particularly know that to be true.
The “business as usual” scenario put out by the International Energy Agency in its 2019 World Energy Outlook does not make for happy reading. It had us on a crash course towards over three degrees of temperature increase due to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption. The IEA also has a “sustainable development scenario” which keeps us within the Paris limits of 1.5 degrees. The only problem is that, according to the OECD, we would need to spend €6.3 trillion per year globally in each of the next 10 years for us to get there. To give you a feeling for how much money that is, the total size of the global economy is estimated at around $86 trillion. And so the challenge seems virtually impossible. Read more
We are delighted to present an update to our European Energy Handbook.
The European Energy Handbook usually reports on regulatory, legal and market developments in the European energy sector. However, these are not usual times as the COVID-19 pandemic is creating significant health, social and economic challenges worldwide, forcing governments and businesses to critically assess the impact on their people, operations and governance. In many jurisdictions, governments have made available support schemes for businesses in an effort to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic on their businesses. In this special edition, we cover 52 jurisdictions across the globe. Read more
The Dutch Supreme Court (the Court) has recently affirmed a decision of the District Court to issue an order directing the State of the Netherlands to reduce it's greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2020 by at least 25% of the emissions as at 1990. The order issued by the District Court now stands as a final and binding order. This litigation was brought by an environment focused not-for-profit foundation. Given its success, it is likely to inspire more environmental NGOs to commence similar... Read more
Now in its eleventh edition, the European Energy Handbook 2019 - 2020 provides an in-depth survey of current issues in the energy sector in 42 European jurisdictions.
This year's edition focuses on recent legal and commercial developments in each jurisdiction, and covers issues such as the Energy Union, the adoption of the latest package of EU energy legislation, and the 'Clean Energy for All Europeans' bundle of directives and regulations updating the EU's energy policy framework to facilitate the decarbonisation of the sector and the transition towards cleaner energy. Climate change, the energy transition and associated challenges are...
In a 2019 global survey, 1,250 CEOs rated environmental / climate change risk the single biggest threat to business growth.
The race is on for businesses to understand their environmental impact and to manage the legal risks to succeed in a lower-carbon future.
Our report, which gathers insights from our global experts, considers the political, regulatory and commercial pressures arising from climate change, looks at the steps for ensuring that risk management practices measure up to the climate change challenge, and examines the benefits for businesses in all sectors that lead the transformation and innovate toward ...
