G20: adopt better regulation or climate policies just hot air
The Legal Sector Alliance is calling on G20 nations to implement more effective legislation to support the commitments they make to tackling climate change.
The call comes ahead of the G20 Pittsburgh Summit on 24 September and the end-of-year Copenhagen Summit where leaders from across the world will meet for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to thrash out a global deal on carbon emissions.
The LSA Communiqué (PDF, 26kb), written by executive members of the alliance, alerts G20 governments to the critical need to translate high level policy into binding international obligations and also into the national legislation required to give them full effect. National legislation should contain the specific regulatory provisions needed to change behaviour and promote low carbon energy generation and consumption. The LSA executive members believe that the G20 has a crucial role in ensuring that international and national legislation is coherent and collaborative.
The LSA is an inclusive movement of law firms and legal services organisations in England and Wales committed to working together to take action on climate change. Launched in December 2008 by HRH The Prince of Wales and supported by the Law Society and Business in the Community, the alliance represents nearly one in four solicitors in private practice in England and Wales.
The LSA believes that for regulation to be effective it should adhere to the following principles:
- Regulation and its enforcement should be clear and proportionate and form part of a coherent, integrated regulatory and enforcement network.
- Legal and regulatory regimes should be reviewed and reformed to correct any failure to price or minimise carbon emissions and to remove perverse incentives which, for example promote disproportionate investment in one technology at the expense of others.
- International and national rules are required to clarify the status of carbon emission reductions as property and the title to sequestered carbon.
The communiqué is signed on behalf of the 18 LSA executive members and is addressed to the UK and other G20 governments.
The UK legal sector is a leader in the legal services market, with wide ranging experience of the impact of regulation on corporate and individual behaviour. The LSA is willing to contribute pro bono to the formulation of effective regulation in the UK and anticipates that many law firms and legal services organisations in other jurisdictions will want to do likewise.
Law Society Chief Executive Des Hudson said:
'The actions of the G20 governments over the coming months are vital to ensuring an effective global approach to combating climate change. The LSA communiqué calls for better, clearer regulation, to create an environment to enable businesses and government to work effectively towards reducing carbon emissions to necessary levels.'
Chair of the LSA Policy Committee, Vanessa Havard-Williams said:
'Any international agreement to reduce emissions needs to be implemented through national law. The LSA believes that putting in place proportionate, well designed regulation which is coordinated across markets where appropriate is key to a successful transition to a lower carbon world.'
For more information journalists can contact the Law Society Press Office on 020 7320 5902.