The road to COP26

In the lead-up to COP28 in Dubai, Global Counsel hosted a digital in-conversation between Global Counsel Chairman, Peter Mandelson, and Chengyu Fu, COP28 advisory committee member. Mr Fu has had over forty years of experience in the energy sector including as CEO of CNOOC, chairman of SINOPEC and a board member of the UN Global Compact.

On March 20th, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its summary for policy makers of the Synthesis Report covering the latest research on climate change and its impacts. It condenses hundreds of pages into a digestible soundbite to inform policymakers and policymaking. The resounding call is for urgent and immediate action with current national…

After almost two years of build-up, COP26 finally took place during the first two weeks of November. The expectations were high and the media attention significant – both positive and negative. Amidst the flurry of pledges, side agreements and negotiated texts, it is challenging to decipher whether COP26 was ‘a success’ and what it means for global (and local) climate…

The UK’s presidency of the climate change conference COP26 was seized as an opportunity to define themselves as a leader in this space on the global stage. The key goals set out by Alok Sharma, COP26 President, was “cars, coal, cash, and trees”, with other important areas requiring resolution being the finalisation of the emissions trading chapter of the Paris Agreement.

When President Vladimir Putin declared in 2020 that climate change was a critical, manmade threat to Russia, he took many observers by surprise. Until then, climate change in Russia was often spoken of as a potential positive, given its frozen northern land and sea. But with COP26 approaching, Russia appears to be relatively serious about its route map for its low carbon…

This summer, we are revisiting episodes from the Global Counsel podcast archive, looking at what they can tell us about topical developments in public policy and regulation ahead of the autumn. From COP26 to the education system in the US, the GC team offers timeless insight into global and national trends to look out for across sectors and around the world.

Following a post-NATO dinner between the premiers of Australia and the UK, it was announced that a free trade agreement between the two countries had been agreed in ‘broad terms’. Further details are expected to be fleshed out soon, but it is not yet clear when the full text of the agreement will be finalised from a technical perspective and published.

Summits are high-stakes affairs, particularly for their hosts. The format of relatively free and unsupported interaction between leaders leaves more to chance than the final, carefully drafted communiques suggest. The strength or weakness of relationships comes to the fore. The ability of the chair to forge a path through the competing egos and interests matters. 

Jon Garvie, Practice lead for Policy; Denzil Davidson, Adviser; and Charley Roberts, Associate, Climate and Sustainability unpack the G7 leader’s summit, which will take place from Friday to Sunday in Carbis Bay, Cornwall.

On an event for the Global Counsel network, Elizabeth Beall, Climate and Sustainability Practice Lead and Geoffrey Norris, Senior Adviser, are joined by Lord Deben, Chair of the UK Committee on Climate Change and Former Secretary of State for the Environment.

2020 marked a step change in how both corporates and investors consider ESG, driven in large part by policy and regulatory changes. 2021 is set to be a year where ESG will start to have real bite. With greater regulatory and market scrutiny, increased reporting and thus greater data, the bar on what is considered as ‘good’ ESG performance will continue to rise. 

Climate and energy policy will be a dominating feature of Biden’s cabinet. Decision-making will be more systematic but could also be complex given the high seniority of the (at least) seven cabinet members who will be involved in energy policy (all awaiting Senate confirmation except for John Kerry and Gina McCarthy). Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, as Energy…

Not all solutions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change are technological. So-called ‘nature-based’ solutions are rapidly increasing in prominence, successfully breaking through conservation circles to mainstream policy since the 2019 Madrid UN climate conference.

Over the last few years, climate finance investment has focused on mitigation over adaptation and resilience. A few things are probably driving this. One is the sense that adaptation and resilience are responses to potential physical changes still in the relatively distant future. Mitigation, by contrast, is seen as an urgent race to reduce emissions to forestall more…

Last week, the City of London Corporation and the UK Green Finance Institute hosted a ‘Green Horizon Summit’. At the event, a package of proposals was unveiled by the UK government aiming to cement the UK as a global centre for green finance and signal something of the UK government’s post-Brexit vision for the City of London. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s…

With the prime minister set to make a set-piece speech next week on how the UK meets its net-zero commitment, the big question remains how far he will emphasise the importance of hydrogen to the country’s green ambitions. Pressure has been ratcheting up in the context of Europe and China committing substantial funds to hydrogen in their recovery plans, but the UK has not…

On November 3rd, Global Counsel hosted a panel discussion on the role of diet in achieving climate objectives. The discussion focused on how likely we are to see forthcoming UK policy aimed at addressing a dietary shift and whether we can expect to see governments increasingly intervene in this area in the same way they do in energy or transport.

Last week’s extensive negotiations in the European Parliament have set the tone for how far the EU is willing to integrate its stated sustainability objectives with agricultural policy. The two areas of policy have often been at loggerheads, but the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy released earlier this year had created some expectation that things may be shifting…