CCLI

CCLI Country Report Launch and Reception
2018-04-01 10:00 - 17:00 UTC | London, London, United Kingdom
To coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in April 2018, the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) launched and published a series of research reports, including an actionable framework for directors to integrate climate change issues into governance practice and policy recommendations for directors’ associations and financial regulators.

Symposia on Directors' Liability for Climate Change Damages
2018-01-20 10:00 - 17:00 | Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa
The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) organised two high-level symposia in South Africa on the legal basis for directors and trustees to consider, manage, and report on climate change-related risk, and the circumstances in which they may be liable for failing to do so. These events are relevant to a wide range of organisations working on or interested in climate change issues.
The first symposium was held at The Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg on Tuesday 16 January 2018. The second symposium was held at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on Thursday 18 January 2018.

Directors' duties and liabilities around climate risk: the TCFD recommendations
2017-12-01 08:00 - 17:00
This webinar provided an overview of the regulatory landscape in relation to the TCFD recommendations and climate risk, in addition to a detailed analysis of the current situation in Australia and the UK. It helped to generate a better understanding of the duties directors are responsible for, as well as the liability risks they may be exposed to.

Symposia on Climate Change and Liability Risks to Directors, Officers and Companies in Canada
2017-10-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Vancouver and Toronto, Canada
The symposia highlighted what leading companies are doing to manage climate change risk and to develop opportunities from the policy transition underway to a low-carbon economy.
The symposia did involve leading members of Canada’s business, law and investment communities to discuss the liability risks to Canadian directors and companies from failing to take seriously the need to transition to a low-carbon economy, and to think through strategies to ameliorate those risks and to promote strong, facilitative governance and regulatory policies for both companies and investors. Discussions addressed boards’ and investment trustees’ fiduciary obligations to develop climate-resilient strategies; securities disclosure requirements and liability risks; and the best thinking on operationalizing Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy.
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National Environmental Law Association Annual Conference 'Addressing Past Harm, Managing Future Risks'
2017-08-20 | Brisbane, Australia
The 2017 NELA conference brought together a range of experts to discuss the state of Australia’s environment, how various States are addressing past impacts, and innovative mechanisms being explored to avoid future harm. Examining mining rehabilitation, groundwater management, climate risk disclosure, sustainable business practices were among the topics of particular interest.

Roundtable on The Climate Disclosure Challenge – Can existing accounting, reporting and assurance standards accommodate the Financial Stability Board Taskforce recommendations?
2017-07-01 | Melbourne, Australia
This Roundtable was arranged by Chartered Accountants ANZ and CPA Australia, in cooperation with the Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative (CCLI).
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) presented its final Recommendations to the FSB and G20 in Hamburg on 7-8 July, 2017. Whilst ‘voluntary’, the TCFD Recommendations are an influential statement on those forms of analysis and disclosure required to present a ‘true and fair view’ of material climate change risks, and their impact on corporate performance and prospects. With most Australian listed entities having a 30 June year-end, Australia was amongst the first jurisdictions to consider the application of the TCFD Recommendations in the preparation of annual reports and audited financial statements.

FT Climate Finance Summit: Scaling up Finance for Climate Action
2017-05-01 | London, London, United Kingdom
Alice Garton, co-investigator at CCLI and Company and Financial Project Leader at ClientEarth, spoke at the FT Climate Finance Summit in London, which gathered some of the leading decision makers, policy makers and investors, to explore the role of international finance in global efforts to combat climate change, as well as the risks and opportunities for businesses, financial markets and investors in the new climate economy.

Castle Debate: Legal Liability for Climate Change
2017-02-01 | London, London, United Kingdom
As business steels itself to deal with seismic changes in the world’s climate, what is legally expected of directors is becoming more stringent. The Paris Climate talks in December 2015 confirmed what we already knew – that more serious action is required from the corporate world in future. Business leaders must understand how to respond to this cultural, regulatory and economic shift – which means legal and financial experts must collaborate to elucidate the law and give the right information to business leaders.

Value Creation in a Sustainable Manner
2017-01-12 | Melbourne, Australia
Panel featuring Prof Mervyn King SC and CCLI’s Australian convenor, Sarah Barker (Minter Ellison), hosted by CPA Australia and Melbourne Law School’s Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law (CREEL) and Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation (CCLSR). This event explored the changing role of the corporation and how this may play out in complex regulatory and legal environments. The panel discussions revolved around the potential effects of local and international developments in climate change litigation. Some of questions that being addressed included whether or not and how increased shareholder activism will force corporate decision-makers to consider and manage climate change risks, and if this will drive a longer term perspective and preserve corporate value, among others.

Climate Risk and the Law Breakfast Seminar
2017-01-03 | London, London, United Kingdom
CCLI through ClientEarth, together with IIGCC, PRI, CDP, Influence Map and Bentham Europe, co-organised a breakfast seminar to explore the liability risks that climate change poses to companies, and what the law can do to help you to avoid risks and recover losses.
Recent high profile corporate scandals involving VW, as well as the collapse of the US coal sector, demonstrate that there are serious risks associated with the shift to a lower carbon economy. In both these cases, significant shareholder value was destroyed by either fraudulent or imprudent managerial practices. In the coming transition, additional regulatory pressure together with rapid technological change is guaranteed to create both winners and losers.
This event considered both how investors can seek to avoid backing losers, and how they can recover losses which may occur. In light of the recent release of the recommendations report of the FSB’s task force on climate-related financial disclosures, the event provided a forum to discuss how investors can confidently act on the additional information expected to become available, avoid systemic risk, and be confident active stewards of the companies they own.

Climate Change Risk and Corporate Governance Directors' Duties and Liability Exposures in a post-Paris World
2016-08-01 | Melbourne, Australia
Climate change presents material – if not unparalleled – economic risks and opportunities. These emerging exposures have implications for corporate governance in climate-risk exposed industries (from financial services to mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and beyond), investors (banks, asset owners and managers) and for the insurance sector (professional indemnity and directors’ and officers’ insurance).
Despite these risks, there remains little in-depth analysis of how prevailing corporate governance laws and fiduciary duties facilitate – or constrain – the actions of company directors and trustees confronted with complex climate change challenges.
The symposium considered international developments in the law and liability for climate change damages, with a practical, inter-disciplinary perspectives provided by leading directors, economists, investors and insurance-sector executives.

International Symposium on Directors' Liability for Climate Change Damages
2016-06-15 | University of Oxford
The first of three high-level international symposia on the legal exposures of company directors for climate change damages. The first symposium was held at Lady Margaret Hall, a college within the University of Oxford, on the 8th June 2016. Each symposium facilitated a cross-institutional and cross-jurisdictional exchange of legal thought leadership on director liability risks relevant to plaintiff and defence lawyers, regulators, investors, accountants, and insurers.
