How COP26 Should Impact The Legal Industry

COP26 was a highly anticipated event, hailed as the most important COP since COP21 - where the foundations of the Paris Agreement originated. The resulting document from COP26, the Glasgow Climate Pact, sets out the commitments and pledges made by participating countries. The pledges made at COP26 will gradually be translated into laws and more actionable points on the national and international level. It is important to note that the Glasgow Climate Pact is not legally binding.?

Corporate legal professionals have a major role to play in the implementation of a more climate conscious approach in business practices. The climate crisis should no longer be top of mind for just environmental or climate change lawyers. Particularly those heavily involved with business dealings and operations have potential to imbed sustainability into their clients. Therefore, rather than speculating about the possible implications of COP26 on the legal industry, here are four implications it SHOULD have:

• Corporate legal professionals should assume a more pro-active role in leading the client towards better environmental decision-making.
• Through more voluntary disclosure, corporate clients can be transparent regarding the sustainability of their operations across the supply chain to stakeholders.
• Rather than waiting for countries to implement legal frameworks turning their pledges into plans, corporations can be guided to comply with commitments made by countries.?
• Legal professionals can enable thought leadership and innovation by pursuing a responsible, pro-active legal strategy, thereby creating competitive advantage for the client.

Overall, we can conclude that COP26 lacks resulting hard mechanisms legal professionals love to hide behind. However, where our countries’ leaders may have fallen short on making tangible commitments due to politics or diplomacy issues, legal professionals need not be held back by such constraints. Particularly when working with corporate clients, there is a pro-active role to be assumed which will provide long-term value to your clients.

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