In Brief: UK to expand nuclear industry; Norway agrees to deep-sea mining
The latest ESG policy and regulatory news
The UK government has published a road map on how it intends to revive the nuclear energy industry in the country. The plan includes the construction of a new power station, in addition to the yet-to-be-built Sizewell C plant, as well as a £300mn nuclear fuel programme to power the most modern reactors. The government also announced consultations on its approach to siting new nuclear power stations and on how to attract private capital for new nuclear projects. The consultations will be open until March 10 and April 4, respectively.
A legislative proposal to open up Norway’s national waters for commercial deep-sea mining operations was passed in parliament. At present, Norway will only allow companies to apply for exploration rather than exploitation licences. The quest for minerals from the ocean’s seabed remains a highly controversial and unregulated practice. The UN-backed International Seabed Authority has so far failed to agree on exploitation regulations. Some countries are actively lobbying for a ban on the practice until its impact on the environment is properly assessed, as is demanded by campaign groups.
The Netherlands has been sued by Greenpeace Netherlands and eight residents from the Dutch special municipality island Bonaire, demanding the government cuts carbon emissions more quickly and protects the population against climate change impacts. The lawsuit, filed in a district court in The Hague, came after the group sent a “pre-litigation” letter to the government last May. Bonaire, which is located in the Caribbean and has a population of approximately 20,000 people, is vulnerable to sea-level rises and its economy is heavily reliant on tourism.
British chemicals group Ineos has received a temporary permit to start building an ethane cracker in the port of Antwerp, in Belgium, according to local media reports. Ethane is a component of natural gas and a key element in the production of plastics. The project has been the subject of a battle with legal non-profit ClientEarth in the the Belgian courts.
The US states of Minnesota and Delaware have scored wins against Big Oil in court. The US Supreme Court ruled in favour of Minnesota, allowing the state’s consumer protection lawsuit alleging deceptive campaigning by oil companies and trade associations to continue its course in state court. Meanwhile, Delaware’s Superior Court agreed the state’s climate deception case against Big Oil could proceed in part, after siding with the defendants to dismiss the claims focused on consumer fraud and greenwashing.
Canada’s five largest banks have been accused of greenwashing by shareholder advocacy group Investors for Paris Compliance, which filed a securities complaint with the Ontario Securities Commission and Quebec’s financial markets regulator. The group claims that several deals made by the banks under their sustainable finance segments resulted in emissions increases rather than decreases, which the group considers to be misleading.