by Hardwick Legal | Apr 3, 2019 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
<section><section><p><img src="[images%7COpenAccessDataProvider]dba48b30-49ee-4968-b93a-df006e3857ce" sf-size="3003695"></p><p><i>First published in LexisPSL. LexisPSL Environment includes a <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/energy/synopsis/158749:158750/Capacity-Market%2C-balancing-services-and-energy-system-flexibility/Smart-metering?wa_origin=paHomePage"></a><a href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/environment/synopsis/92175:92191/Environmental-reporting%2C-management-and-responsible-business/Responsible-business%2C-human-rights-and-sustainability?wa_origin=paHomePage" data-sf-ec-immutable="">dedicated subtopic with practical guidance and legal news items on </a></i><a href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/environment/synopsis/92175:92191/Environmental-reporting%2C-management-and-responsible-business/Responsible-business%2C-human-rights-and-sustainability?wa_origin=paHomePage" data-sf-ec-immutable=""><i>responsible business, human rights and sustainability. </i></a><i style="font-size:inherit;background-color:initial;">Click <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/products/lexis-psl-c.html?utm_source=Blog&utm_medium=Energy_blog&utm_campaign=101177%20-%20Energy%20blog">here</a> for a free trial of LexisPSL.</i></p><p>With climate change and environmental impact increasingly on businesses’ radars, there is a rising trend for purchase-enabled sustainability action business models, eg promising to plant a tree for each purchase. Tree-planting has been adopted by a growing number of companies intending to offset their carbon emissions. While this may be attractive to environment-conscious consumers, little is known about how to measure and verify the effectiveness of these models. In other words, how do we know trees are actually being planted, and what difference does this action realistically make? Jono Adams, sustainability consultant at Anthesis Group, comments on these purchase-enabled sustainability action models and the voluntary nature of regulation.</p><h2>Good intentions?<br></h2><p>Despite 80% of European companies considering climate change as a business risk, most have no targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and 53% have no climate goals, according to the <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://www.cdp.net/en/research/global-reports/europe-report-2018" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new window">Carbon Disclosure Project report 2018</a>. It appears that, despite growing concerns about climate change, many businesses are slow to accept their environmental responsibility.</p><p>Adams says the move towards purchase-enabled sustainability regimes, such as tree-planting, sometimes starts with businesses’ intention to reduce their environmental impact as much as possible but equally, it may simply be motivated by encouraging more sales of their product by appearing to be a more responsible organisation.</p><p>For the businesses that are considering their environmental responsibility—from those who want to reduce their carbon footprint to those who want to make an ‘overall positive environmental and/or social impact’—a range of options are available, such as:</p><ul><li>developing a strategy that is in line with the ambitions set as part of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature increase below 2⁰C—Adams suggests a science-based carbon target</li><li><a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://bcorporation.net/" target="_blank" title="opens in a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://bcorporation.net/" target="_blank" title=""></a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://bcorporation.net/" target="_blank" title="opens in a ></li></ul></section></section>
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
Regulating purchase-enabled sustainability action in businesses—International Day of Forests 2019
by Hardwick Legal | Apr 1, 2019 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
<img src="[images%7COpenAccessDataProvider%7Ctmb%3Acarouselth]34fa62cf-8874-42fb-8718-81b3d1e284c3" sf-size="100"><p> </p><p>In <i>Mears v Costplan </i><a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=8V52-RK02-D6MY-P2FT&csi=279841&oc=00240&perma=true&elb=t" target="_blank">[2019] EWCA Civ 502</a>, the Court
of Appeal has provided a useful summary of the law on the meaning of practical completion.</p><p>The ruling is an important one for construction lawyers—’practical completion’ is a term widely used, but often not defined, in construction contracts.</p><p>Following a review of various authorities on the meaning of practical completion, the court summarised the law as follows:</p><ul><li>practical completion is easier to recognise than define. There are no hard and fast rules</li><li>the existence of latent defects cannot prevent practical completion. In many ways this is self-evident—if the defect is latent, nobody knows about it and it cannot therefore prevent the certifier from concluding that practical completion has
been achieved</li><li>in relation to patent defects, there is no difference between an item of work that has yet to be completed (ie an outstanding item) and an item of defective work which needs to be remedied. Snagging lists usually identify both without distinction</li><li>practical completion is a state of af</li></ul>
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
Court of Appeal considers meaning of practical completion
by Hardwick Legal | Mar 29, 2019 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
<p><img src="[images%7COpenAccessDataProvider]0f333b7c-ec57-43c2-81c7-17683d7affae" sf-size="897615"><br></p><p>A round up of key developments in the energy sector covered by Lexis®PSL Energy this week. </p><p> </p><h2>Capacity Market and balancing services</h2><p> </p><h5>What does the future look like for the Capacity Market in the UK?</h5><p><a href="[f669d9a7-009d-4d83-ddaa-000000000002]9A5FC7F8-A1E5-4F91-B6F0-0C9AA0F37226">Energy analysis</a>: Anna Sweeney, senior knowledge lawyer in the infrastructure, projects and energy team at Addleshaw Goddard, outlines the government’s latest consultations on the capacity market (CM) and explains what’s coming next. </p><div><br></div><h5>Invitation for comment on UK capacity market published in the Official Journal</h5><p>The European Commission has reached the <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?toc=OJ:C:2019:109:TOC&uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2019.109.01.0003.01.ENG">preliminary conclusion</a> that the UK Capacity Market contributes to an objective of common interest and is necessary. The Commission has invited parties in the UK to submit their comments and to provide all information that may help assess the measure. The letter inviting comments was published in the Official Journal on 22 March 2019. </p><div><br></div><h5>Government publishes Capacity Market (Amendment) (No 2) Rules 2019</h5><p>The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has published the <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/786989/capacity-market-amendment-no2-rules-2019.pdf">Capacity Market (Amendment) (No 2) Rules 2019</a>. The rules come into force on the same day that the Electricity Capacity (No 1) Regulations 2019 come into force. The rules amend Rule 1.2, 1.3 in Chapter 1 (General Provisions) and make amendments to Chapter 16 (Modifications in respect of Capacity Agreements existing on 15 November 2018 and in respect of the T-1 Auction for the Delivery Year commencing on 1 October 2019). The rules enable the T-1 2019 auction to operate during the scheme’s ‘standstill’ period, pending the outcome of the European Commission’s in-depth investigation of the UK’s Capacity Market. </p><div><br></div><h5>Government updates guidance notes on its Storage and Scale competition</h5><p>The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has updated its guidance notes and application form for its <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789238/Storage_at_Scale-Competition_Guidance_Notes_March_2019.pdf">Storage and Scale competition</a>. The competition is seeking innovative and replicable solutions in order to offer a market competitive alternative to conventional commercial large-scale energy technologies. Up to £20m in funding will be available from 2019-21 to fund up to three demonstration projects. The deadline for operational testing is December 2021.</p><p> </p><h2>Renewable energy</h2><p> </p><h5>Ofgem publishes guidance for suppliers under the Renewables Obligation</h5><p>Ofgem has published <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publ data-sf-ec-immutable="" href=""></a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publ></p>
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
Energy weekly highlights - 29 March 2019
by Hardwick Legal | Mar 29, 2019 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
<article data-sf-ec-immutable=""><section><p>Energy analysis: Anna Sweeney, senior knowledge lawyer in the infrastructure, projects and energy team at Addleshaw Goddard, outlines the government’s latest consultations on the capacity market (CM) and explains what’s coming next.</p></section></article><section><section><h2><mark id="CITEID_684927"></mark>What is the current status of the CM?</h2></section><section><p>The UK CM is currently in a standstill period following the ruling in <i>Tempus Energy and Tempus Energy Technology v Commission</i>, Case <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/energy/document/412012/8V4T-XNB2-8T41-D4G7-00000-00/linkHandler.faces?psldocinfo=What_does_the_future_look_like_for_the_capacity_market_in_the_UK_&linkInfo=F%23GB%23T%23sel1%252014%25year%252014%25page%25793%25&A=0.48286984056174576&bct=A&ps=null&risb=&service=citation&langcountry=GB" target="_parent">T-793/14</a> by the General Court of the EU that annulled the European Commission’s 2014 decision that the CM scheme was compatible with state aid rules. This means that the European Commission now has to carry out an in-depth investigation to assess whether the CM scheme is compatible with the state aid rules (the European Commission has also appealed against the court’s ruling). The investigation began on 21 February 2019 and could take up to 18 months.</p><p>On 22 March 2019, the European Commission <a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://bit.ly/2UbHmth" target="_blank" title="Opens in a new window">announced</a> that it had preliminarily concluded that the UK CM contributes to an ‘objective of common interest’ and is necessary. The European Commission has invited parties in the UK to submit their comments and to provide all information that may help assess the measure as part of its investigation. Comments are required to be submitted by 22 April 2019.</p><p>BEIS has welcomed the European Commission’s preliminary conclusion that ‘the UK CM contributes to an objective of common interest and is necessary’ and is confident that the investigation will determine that the CM is fully compliant with state aid rules upon a full review of the evidence. However, the European Commission wants to know from demand side response (DSR) providers whether they think that the CM is disadvantaging them compared to generators, since DSR providers can only bid for shorter capacity contracts. It also seeks views on whether the CM should be open to direct foreign generator participation, not just through interconnectors bidding for capacity.</p><p>Until the CM regains state aid approval (and there is no guarantee that </p></section></section>
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
What does the future look like for the Capacity Market?
by Hardwick Legal | Mar 18, 2019 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
<div><p><b>On 13 March 2019, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, delivered the Spring Statement 2019. As part of this, he announced that further planning reforms would be taken forward to help put the government on track to reaching its target of 300,000 new houses a year.</b></p><p>Alongside the statement, two written ministerial statements were made:</p><ul><li><a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-statement-2019-written-ministerial-statement">a written ministerial statement by Philip Hammond</a> providing more detail on some of the announcements in the Spring Statement 2019, and</li><li><a data-sf-ec-immutable="" href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-03-13/HCWS1408/">a written ministerial statement by the </a><b>Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (SHCLG) </b>providing further detail on forthcoming planning reforms<br></li></ul><p><b>Our overall verdict</b></p><p>Commitments to tackle the under-delivery of new housing featured heavily, with the government confirming that it will take forward various minor technical planning reforms consulted on in 2018. This includes the extension of permitted development rights to permit upward extensions and making permanent the existing permitted development rights for larger single storey rear extensions to dwellings. While these changes will be welcomed by homeowners and developers, it is questionable what impact these changes will have in terms of meeting the government’s ambitious house-building targets.</p><p>Proposals to consult on how local areas can innovatively use planning tools to support their high streets are questionable: local authorities already have the powers mentioned, but due to resourcing and funding issues rarely use them to proactively improve their areas. The same point applies to the commitment to introduce additional planning guidance to support housing diversification on large sites, which will involve yet further change which over-stretched planning departments and planning inspectors will have to grapple with. It remains to be seen whether the green paper on greater capacity and capability in the planning process will commit the government to spend significantly on resourcing issues in planning departments and at the Planning Inspectorate.</p><p><b>What are the Spring Statement 2019’s headlines for planning and infrastructure?</b></p><p>The key planning announcements in the Spring Statement 2019 and related written ministerial statements contain commitments to:</p><ul><li>publish a consultation exploring potential changes to help local areas make better use of planning tools to support their local high streets, including through compulsory purchase orders, local development orders, and other ‘innov</li></ul></div>
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
Government announces further planning reform alongside Spring Statement 2019
