With multiple government agencies finding 2019 to be the second-hottest year on record, individuals and business of all stripes need to step up now and do their part in addressing the climate crisis. And lawyers and firms are no exception.
Marcia Ellis, partner and co-head of Asia private equity practice, Morrison & Foerster
Law firms can play many roles to address climate change, including doing pro bono work such as providing comments on proposed legislation/guidelines and submitting amicus briefs in cases related to climate change. However, we can more efficiently leverage our work on climate change by working to educate and assist our clients in how to assess climate risk and imbed climate mitiga-tion in mainstream capital markets solutions. In assisting clients, we try to focus on the business benefits of green investing. For our private equity clients worldwide, we provide state-of-the-art knowledge and experience on measuring and reporting ESG criteria, and establishing and oper-ating funds focused on sustainable/green/social impact investments, including the use of innovative corporate structures to facilitate investments by such funds. Moreover, in Asia, we assist our private equity clients to understand and structure around the ever-evolving laws, regulations and guidelines that impact “green” investments and “green” funds/bonds. There’s a straightforward case we can make to clients: Climate change analysis – both carbon emission reduction and climate risk assessment - makes good business sense. Even managers of closed-end private equity funds that take a relatively short-term worldview need to consider the impact of climate change on portfolio companies. For many companies discounted by the market because of the likely impact of climate change, funds can add value by altering their business plans and we can assist in that process. Preparing for climate change could, therefore, be a significant source of returns for funds. I hope we can play a role in educating private equity clients to think of climate change as creating business opportunities – and assisting them to capitalize on those opportunities.
Paul Davies, partner, Latham & Watkins
Law firms can play a key role in addressing climate change, through assisting clients in commercial and pro bono work, and also concerning addressing their impact. First, firms can help commercial clients address their climate change challenges and oppor-tunities by providing responsive guidance on the fast-changing global regulatory environment. This can take several forms, including providing board-level strategic counselling to unlock clients’ commercial potential, and supplying expertise surrounding climate-related risks and opportuni-ties in the M&A space. Law firms are also in a strong position to work with governments and regulators in crafting new climate change regulations and facilitating a dialogue between regulators and companies. Beyond commercial work, providing pro bono services to climate and sustainability-focused clients is an option for firms to the extent that they wish to, and can, participate. A number of innovative, climate-oriented, products and services continue to be developed, and law firms can leverage their expertise in relevant areas. Finally, law firms, like all businesses, have the opportunity to address their impact. This can be done through formal sustainability programs such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting energy/paper usage. Many firms are already beginning to act in this regard.
Maya Ito, Nathan G. Schmidt, and Peter G. Armstrong, partners, Nishimura & Asahi
Energy generation is one of the primary sources of human-based greenhouse gas emissions. In order to slow the pace of climate change, it is expected that markets across the globe will need to sharply increase renewable energy generation over the coming years. As such, we believe that assisting our clients to invest in the renewable energy sector is probably the most important role that we, as a law firm, can play to help to address climate change. Fortunately, we have seen dramatic growth in this sector over the past six years. We are proud of the leading role that Nishimura & Asahi has played in this industry in Japan. Our firm actively assists sponsors, investors, developers, lenders and EPC contractors involved in various types of renew-able energy projects, including solar, wind (both on-shore and off-shore), and bio-mass. In part, this growth is due to the work that law firms have done to address complex legal and regulatory issues. Market standards are emerging for the transac-tions required to develop these renewable energy projects, which will help to further accelerate growth in this sector. We also are proud of our work assisting companies engaged in businesses focused on ESG investments, energy storage and energy efficiency. The risks associated with climate change, however, cannot be ignored. Law firms must also assist their clients assess and manage the increased level of risk associated with extreme weather-related and other events related to climate change, which are expected to become more common.
To contact the editorial team, please email ALBEditor@thomsonreuters.com.
