Latest news with #ClientEarth
The Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
ClientEarth launches climate guide
KUALA LUMPUR: ClientEarth, a non-governmental organisation focused on climate justice and clean energy transition, has launched Guide on Climate Action for Boards in Southeast Asia. The guide, co-published by Climate Governance Malaysia and Earth on Board, aims to provide corporate directors with insights to address the increasing complexity of climate-related legal risks, regulations, and governance requirements within the region. As Southeast Asia faces increasing vulnerability to both physical climate impacts and transition risks, such as evolving regulations and shifting market preferences and behaviours, it is critical for corporate boards to incorporate climate considerations into their decision-making processes. Home to over 685 million people (8.5% of the world's population), Southeast Asia is projected to account for 6.5% of CO2 emissions by 2040. The region faces threats of (and some areas have already witnessed) rising sea levels, increased heat waves, strengthened typhoons, extreme floods and droughts, and unprecedented weather events. In addition, Asia could lose 14.9% of its GDP by 2050, significantly affecting livelihoods, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand potentially losing seven times their total economic output without ambitious climate action. Conversely, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 could boost the Asia-Pacific's GDP by 6.3% above projections and create up to 36.5 million additional jobs by the 2030s. In light of this, the need for corporate boards to take decisive climate action has never been more critical. Recent commitments by countries in the Southeast Asian region to achieve net-zero emissions and the growing integration of climate considerations into national policies reflect an urgent call for businesses to adapt swiftly. This guide provides corporate directors with a comprehensive framework for climate governance. It gives guidance on emerging legal risks, including litigation risk directors and corporations face regarding greenwashing and other climate-related liabilities, whilst outlining key regulatory and market shifts in Southeast Asia's net zero transition. Companies that do not adequately consider and manage foreseeable climate risks, and those that cause harm through carbon-intensive operations that exacerbate the climate crisis, are increasingly facing legal action. At the same time, to the extent that a corporation is found liable in a climate lawsuit, directors may also face personal liability for failing to act reasonably in steering the corporation to manage foreseeable climate risks. Drawing from off-the-record stakeholder interviews, the guide offers actionable steps, including: embedding sustainability across board-level committees, establishing dedicated governance structures, assessing climate risks and opportunities, setting science-based climate ambitions, and ensuring alignment throughout the company's value chain. With the growing adoption in Southeast Asia of international reporting standards like those from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and the International Sustainability Standards Board, as well as the emergence of foreign regulations such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, companies are urged to improve transparency and develop comprehensive decarbonisation transition plans to meet their net zero objectives. In response to these evolving reporting requirements and standards, corporate boards in Southeast Asia play a pivotal role in navigating corporations through the challenges of climate change. Earth on Board Founder and CEO Philippe Joubert said 'At Earth on Board we defend the idea that 2015, with the adoption of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, must be seen as a pivotal year in the area of Boards' duties. 'The fact that the world recognised climate change as a reality and of human origin and has elaborated the main lines of a necessary evolution of the behaviour of economic agents toward all their stakeholders changes dramatically the way we should consider the duties of a board of directors, adding urgency to their actions and deepening the legal responsibilities of this body toward society. 'Duties of care and diligence and responsibility toward the way and the content of what is reported externally by the company are now subject to a different scrutiny by society, and it is urgent that boards understand that this will challenge the way they must fulfil these duties. This guide is a tool to help the boards navigate these fundamental matters.' Climate Governance Malaysia founder and chairperson Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar said: 'The guide highlights how climate leadership goes beyond regulatory compliance, it requires boards to set bold climate ambitions, engage meaningfully with stakeholders, and integrate sustainability into core business strategies. 'As interest in climate-related resolutions and litigations grows in Southeast Asia, corporate boards must step up to drive change, to ensure a positive impact on the communities they serve.' ClientEarth's Energy Systems, Asia team legal consultant Elizabeth Wu said: 'In view of the urgency of the planetary crisis, this guide seeks to encourage robust climate leadership by directors when navigating climate challenges in Southeast Asia. 'By showcasing diverse regional examples, we aim to help directors translate climate ambitions into concrete action. Whether it's establishing effective governance structures, grappling with legal and litigation risks or developing transition plans, the guide provides boards with practical insights adaptable to their unique industry contexts to drive meaningful climate action within their organisation.'
Irish Times
31-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The house that hemp built
In Paris, public housing is being built with biomaterials. On Rue Marx Dormoy, in the 18th arrondissement, a terrace block of 15 social flats, by architecture firm Barrault Pressacco , has been made with timber frames and hempcrete; even the bay windows are hemp. France is the largest producer of industrial hemp in the European Union, and has been using hempcrete in building construction since the 1990s. However, while hemp farming and hempcrete production are growing across Europe, Ireland has been slow to nurture a domestic hempcrete industry, despite mandating its use, particularly in insulation, which could help meet our climate targets and develop new, sustainable agribusinesses. Instead, our national retrofit plan , with a public spend of €8 billion to 2030, is predominantly insulation with carbon-intensive imported plastics. As the environmental group ClientEarth put it, plastics are Plan B for the oil industry. Hemp, a crop that grows rapidly in most soil, is increasingly being seen as part of the solution to climate-resilient and climate-just buildings. While concrete, construction's mainstay, contributes 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, three times that of aviation, hempcrete (a mixture of hemp and lime) is carbon negative across its life cycle, storing rather than releasing carbon. As a non-toxic, lightweight building product, it boosts high thermal insulation, passive energy, breathable walls, good acoustic protection, carbon sequestration, and durability. While it sets hard and is long lasting it is not a load bearing material so is ideal for insulation and could replace some high carbon emitting materials we currently use in construction and energy retrofitting. 'Clients absolutely love it,' says Ronan McDermott, who runs HempBuild in Dublin and Meath. 'It's not just it's good for climate change, it's the whole pie; no chemicals, no toxins, regulates its own humidity, holds heats ten times better than concrete, hygienic, protects against pests, bugs, mould, lasts about 100 years and it's biodegradable.' But while companies like HempBuild and GráHemp in Limerick are supplying hempcrete in Ireland, that hempcrete is being imported due to the lack of production and manufacturing here. McDermott says the barrier in Ireland is the licensing steps required to farm hemp, which can put farmers off and the lack of manufacturing infrastructure to support industrial production. Ultimately, it is the negative association of hemp with its sister plant cannabis, which is illegal to grow here, that informs the barrier and although hemp has no psychoactive properties, and has been used for centuries in making textiles, in Ireland there has been a lack of public policy and support for the sector. Earlier this year Teagasc, the State agency on agriculture and food research, hosted a seminar on industrial hemp production showcasing international and Irish businesses, like HempBuild, and made the case for investing research and development in hempcrete as a biomaterial product. Teagasc senior research officer, Fiona Thorne , an agricultural economist, highlighted the benefits: 'Hemp can support Ireland's climate goals while providing farmers with new revenue streams, but significant investment in processing facilities and market development is required.' Thorne sees the opportunities hempcrete potentially offers to Irish agriculture, climate action and the built environment as a 'no-brainer'. 'If you want to get momentum in this industry we need investment in research, we need the data to develop it,' she adds. At a time when Irish agriculture is facing significant change, particular in the impact of a potential loss of the nitrates derogation, and where Teagasc's research, in the last National Farm Survey Sustainability Report , shows only one third of the Irish farming community are economically viable, developing new climate resilient agribusiness solutions is urgent. While Ireland has been slow to develop a hempcrete production base, hemp cultivation for fibre is growing across the European Union. There has been a 60 per cent increase in land use for hemp fibre cultivation in the past decade and the production of hemp has increased from 97,130 tonnes to 179,020 tonnes, by more than 84 per cent. While France is the largest producer, with more than 60 per cent of EU production, it is followed by Germany and the Netherlands. We can learn from those experiences. 'It's not just Irish Government support that we should be looking at here, but also opportunities at the European level,' says Thorne. 'Our Cap [Common Agricultural Policy] strategic document for Ireland would be the vehicle for doing that.' Hemp, as a crop, thrives with minimal reliance on chemical fertilisers, making it a sustainable alternative to traditional crops that are heavily reliant on inputs. This is particularly relevant in the context of the EU's targets for reducing agricultural chemical use, given its impact on rivers and biodiversity. Hemp is therefore a good match for Ireland's bioeconomy strategy, published in December 2023, with its emphasis on a sustainable and circular economy. Hemp offers a match in developing native biomaterials for construction (as well as textiles, foods and biofuels). Yet Ireland remains slow to seize the opportunity. The obstacle seems to be as much culture and mindset as vested interests. National policy is perhaps defined by what has always been done and the existing economic and dominant commercial business interests (concrete, plastic-based insulation, cladding etc) rather than adopting the systems-based transformative model climate action demands. The siloed nature of Ireland's thinking on materials means the Steering Group on Timber in Construction , established in November 2023 and due to report recommendations, is solely looking at increasing timber use in construction rather than developing a holistic biomaterials strategy, including hempcrete. In neighbouring EU countries, like France, timber and hempcrete work side by side delivering low-carbon solutions. The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC), in its roadmap Building a Circular Ireland , launched in May, calls for a bioeconomy strategy for construction that takes a holistic approach to developing timber and agri-crop supply chains and industries. The roadmap brings together a reuse model for materials and existing buildings, tackling the significant issue of waste, where construction and demotion (C&D) waste is Ireland's largest waste stream – generating more than nine million tonnes a year. The roadmap is effectively a pathway to not just implement the European Performance of Buildings Directive but decarbonising construction and the built environment. While it is expected that the steering group on timber will recommend removing regulatory barriers (timber is restricted due to fire regulations) and implementation of a national standard for the use of mass timber, similar progress on the development of an overall biomaterials in construction policy is absent. Across the EU, cross-laminated timber is safely employed in high-rise buildings, but it also forms part of an overall strategic approach to low-carbon building design, regulation and planning. Besides hempcrete, other complementary biomaterials, including straw from tillage farming and wool from sheep farming, can be used to develop products for the construction industry. Natural insulations can be produced from hemp, wool, straw, reeds, verge grass, elephant grass, seagrass, flax, and mycelium. But if the lack of progress on hempcrete is puzzling, then the complete absence of any discussion around sheep's wool, something Ireland already produces in vast quantities, shows just how deeply entrenched the mindset is on materials and transformative solutions. Ireland has 3.7 million sheep, yet sheep farmers say they have no market for the wool and often just burn it as waste. The few Irish businesses that offer sheep's wool for insulation are importing it from Austria or the United Kingdom. At the IGBC conference in May, one of the main suppliers, Ecological Building Systems had five types of sheep's wool on display with the union jack stamped on it, while Sheep's Wool Insulation in Wicklow imports from Austria, where the wool is treated to prevent moth infestation. They say there's no supply chain in Ireland. Thorne notes Teasgasc is engaged on hempcrete, but that's not the case with sheep's wool; there's no industry market development being done on sheep's wool as a biomaterial for construction. While we continue to maintain a national sheep herd (even if this is reduced to meet climate targets), developing new agri-business markets for waste wool is an obvious route to pursue. Perhaps maintaining the status quo case of a dairy industry dependent on a nitrates derogation is potentially limiting our national ability to imagine innovative new agri-business that could be good for both farmers and climate action. Helen Shaw is a climate solutions researcher and writer. She presented her work Imagining the Climate-Just City, at the recent International Social Housing Festival in Dublin
Bloomberg
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Zero: How Pacific Islands Took on Big Emitters and Won
In 2019, a group of law students from Pacific island nations set in motion a case that made it to the world's highest court: The International Court of Justice. The students wanted answers to two important questions: what responsibility do countries have to stop climate change? And if countries don't stop polluting, will they have to pay for the damages? Now the ICJ has delivered its verdict, and it seems like a huge win for the climate. But is it? Laura Clarke, chief executive officer of legal non-profit ClientEarth, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss.
Reuters
16-07-2025
- General
- Reuters
Spanish court orders cleanup of Galician pig farm pollution in landmark ruling
MADRID, July 11 (Reuters) - The top court in Spain's northwestern Galicia region has ordered that authorities stamp out pollution linked to intensive pig farming in a landmark case highlighting decades-long environmental mismanagement, a court document showed on Friday. Spain, Europe's largest pork producer, houses about a third of its pig farms in Galicia. The court found that for some 20,000 residents of the A Limia area, the fundamental right to living in a healthy environment had been violated. The ruling, condemning both state and regional authorities, marks the first time a European court has addressed the impact of large-scale livestock farming on water sources and residents' human rights, according to environmental groups ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth Spain, which supported the case. It could pave the way for other communities suffering from similar issues to demand justice and protection from authorities, campaigners say. A Limia residents say life has become "unfeasible" due to the proliferation of intensive pig and poultry farms, which brought unbearable odours and contamination from chemicals such as nitrates that seeped into groundwater and water reservoirs. The court stated that regional authorities and the national body overseeing water management failed to act despite legal obligations and awareness of the issues. Government and regional officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ruling can be appealed at Spain's Supreme Court. The court in Galicia ordered that the Galician regional government and the Mino-Sil Hydrographic Confederation take immediate measures to eliminate odours and environmental degradation around the As Conchas water reservoir. The ruling also mandates authorities to ensure clean and safe drinking water free of harmful microorganisms and chemical substances. "Now the authorities have to take action," Pablo Alvarez Veloso, head of the neighbours' association in the As Conchas reservoir area, told Reuters.
The Star
11-07-2025
- General
- The Star
Spanish court orders cleanup of Galician pig farm pollution in landmark ruling
MADRID (Reuters) -The top court in Spain's northwestern Galicia region has ordered that authorities stamp out pollution linked to intensive pig farming in a landmark case highlighting decades-long environmental mismanagement, a court document showed on Friday. Spain, Europe's largest pork producer, houses about a third of its pig farms in Galicia. The court found that for some 20,000 residents of the A Limia area, the fundamental right to living in a healthy environment had been violated. The ruling, condemning both state and regional authorities, marks the first time a European court has addressed the impact of large-scale livestock farming on water sources and residents' human rights, according to environmental groups ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth Spain, which supported the case. It could pave the way for other communities suffering from similar issues to demand justice and protection from authorities, campaigners say. A Limia residents say life has become "unfeasible" due to the proliferation of intensive pig and poultry farms, which brought unbearable odours and contamination from chemicals such as nitrates that seeped into groundwater and water reservoirs. The court stated that regional authorities and the national body overseeing water management failed to act despite legal obligations and awareness of the issues. Government and regional officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ruling can be appealed at Spain's Supreme Court. The court in Galicia ordered that the Galician regional government and the Mino-Sil Hydrographic Confederation take immediate measures to eliminate odours and environmental degradation around the As Conchas water reservoir. The ruling also mandates authorities to ensure clean and safe drinking water free of harmful microorganisms and chemical substances. "Now the authorities have to take action," Pablo Alvarez Veloso, head of the neighbours' association in the As Conchas reservoir area, told Reuters. (Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Aidan Lewis)
