Litigation Risk in the Voluntary Carbon Markets

This session will look at litigation risk in the voluntary carbon markets – an industry which is booming as businesses look to offset their carbon emissions and fulfil ‘net-zero’ commitments.
Despite the scale of the industry (estimated to be worth over $2 billion in 2020 and to grow to around $250 billion by 2050) it is largely unregulated and fragmented with a lack of uniformity across different accreditation standards and methodologies.  New markets make for litigation risk and we are already seeing the emergence of a range of claims spanning greenwashing, tort, contract, securities law and regulatory investigations. This panel discussion will include perspectives from the industry, the bar, private practice and in house.

• Introduction to the VCMs and potential for claims
• Lessons learned from other misselling sagas
• Types of claim, including breach of contract, tort (misrep, deceit, conspiracy, fraud), greenwashing, BHRs and regulatory risk
• Consequences of claims
• Risk mitigation