The purpose of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) was to bring nations together to accelerate action towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Below we include a summary of the takeaways from COP26. However, the real question is: what does this mean you should be doing next? Globally speaking, governments failed to match the expectations of a broad range of stakeholders and have fallen behind the momentum in the business world. The lack of global consensus on climate ambition will translate into a patchwork quilt of state-level action which makes management of legal risk extremely complex for multinationals. We highlight the areas on which General Counsel need to keep focused to fully manage the risk and to raise in the context of their organisation’s commitments to net zero and broader organisational planning around climate and other ESG-related commitments.

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The Climate Change team at Dentons offer:

• Global climate change expertise – we have been advising clients on climate change issues since the earliest days of the carbon markets, helping them to navigate the opportunities and challenges that climate change offers to their business. We work across all aspects of the carbon markets, including voluntary and compliance markets, regularly advising on the Clean Development Mechanism, Gold Standard and Voluntary Carbon Standard. We were awarded an Innovation Award by the American Carbon Registry for our development of a new offset methodology. Our experience includes drafting national carbon trading regulatory regimes, as well as legal crisis response management resulting from the impacts of climate change. We have been involved in pathfinder projects at the forefront of climate change solutions, such as advising on carbon capture and storage (CCUS), the nascent green hydrogen sector and cross-border carbon offsetting.
• A carbon neutral law firm which "walks the walk" – we are proud that our UK and Middle East region was one of the first law firms to be certified as carbon neutral. We aim to reduce our energy usage, waste production and travel year on year, and we purchase offsets to offset the emissions we cannot eliminate completely. Through our offsets, we support a water infrastructure project in the Kaliro District of Uganda, ultimately saving more than 10,000 tonnes of wood fuel from being burned to boil water. We are constantly looking to use renewable energy sources and decrease energy usage across our UK real estate footprint (for example, reducing gas usage in our London office by 52% through intelligent usage and maintenance).
• A 150-year history in Glasgow – Founded in 1871, our predecessor firm Maclay Murray and Spens has been supporting businesses in Glasgow for almost 150 years. Our central location on George Square means that our offices will be at the heart of the action. Glasgow was recently voted the friendliest city in the world and our office and staff are proud to welcome the summit and to contribute to its success. Glasgow is committed to being the UK's first Net Zero city and we are working collaboratively with the local community, business, government and academia in helping to set the net zero carbon agenda and to deliver on this ambitious roadmap.

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Dentons' 15+ jurisdiction Statkraft – Solarcentury deal is awarded “best M&A deal of the year” at the Inspiratia Energy & Sustainability awards

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Dentons is celebrating after its 15+ jurisdiction solar M&A deal for Statkraft - on its acquisition of Solarcentury - has been awarded “best M&A deal of the year” at this year's Inspiratia Energy & Sustainability awards.