On October 17, 2024, Ontario’s Court of Appeal sided with a group of young climate activists in its Mathur v Ontario decision, reviving a case against the province which was previously dismissed in April 2023.
On October 9, 2024, the Canadian government announced that it will establish a “Made-in-Canada” sustainable investing taxonomy, and institute mandatory climate disclosure requirements for large, federally-incorporated private companies.
The legislation’s goal is to support workers and communities by creating high-quality, socially-responsible (and preferably unionized) jobs, as part of the transition away from fossil fuels.
The European Court of Human Rights delivered its long-awaited first ruling in the climate action case Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz v. Switzerland, finding that the European Convention on Human Rights encompasses the right to effective protection from adverse effects of climate change.
The program will cover three-quarters of the state’s emissions, meaning that once in place, Washington will become the second US state (after California) to price most in-state emissions. Collected program revenues will be allocated to a “climate investment account” to support Washington’s green transition.
Canada’s federal ministry of the environment and climate change recently announced it will review Output-Based Pricing System (OBPS) regulations with an eye to increasing emission reductions, covering additional industrial activities, correcting current standards not aligned with activities performed by participating facilities, and improving efficiency.
Canada’s department of the environment and climate change recently announced it is developing first phase federal carbon offset protocols for advanced refrigeration systems, forest management, landfill methane management, and “enhanced soil organic carbon” (presumably referring to what is commonly known as regenerative agriculture).
If implemented, EU carbon border adjustments would place a duty on imports from jurisdictions lacking a sufficient price on carbon emissions. This would protect European industries subject to the bloc’s carbon pricing system from competition with producers in countries with weaker environmental laws, as well as ‘leakage’, wherein businesses relocate operations to environmentally lax jurisdictions to increase cost competitiveness (i.e., ‘offshoring pollution’).
In its recent report One Year On: BlackRock still addicted to fossil fuels, French sustainable finance organization Reclaim Finance details how American financial giant BlackRock’s public declaration to make sustainability its new investing standard has, one year later, yielded only “half-hearted” and “superficial” results.
