Climate related drafting - change the precedent, change the world
The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) is an independent organisation that has brought together lawyers from around the world to develop contractual drafting to address climate change. In 2021, TCLP launched their Net Zero Toolkit which is a collection of clauses and tools to enable lawyers to align their work with a decarbonised economy. In our report, we give expert views on these clauses.
As organisations set net zero targets, it is important that their policies, procurement documents and contracts remain fit for purpose and reflect those goals.
There is a risk that standard contracts and precedents act as a barrier to those commitments being actioned and so it is essential that contracts move with the net zero agenda. Not only is that important to achieve net zero across an organisation’s value chain, but it helps signpost change to staff, stakeholders and suppliers.
For some organisations this is about future-proofing documents, but many are already working closely with their wider value chain to identify and reduce emissions. Increasingly, interests are aligned and landlords, tenants, suppliers and business owners are seeing the value in collaborative approaches to share relevant data and help achieve collective targets.
The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) ran a series of hackathons and group sessions involving more than 1,300 lawyers to develop precedent clauses, checklists and glossaries across a range of practice areas. In 2021, TCLP launched their Net Zero Toolkit which is a collection of clauses and tools to enable lawyers to align their work with a decarbonised economy.
The Chancery Lane Project clauses
Trowers & Hamlins has been involved with the project since the beginning, and our cross-departmental working group brings together lawyers from across the business to review the TCLP drafting and provide practical insight and proportional application to climate related clauses for contracts and documents.
In this collection of articles, we consider a range of TCLP clauses and how they may be applied to active projects and transactions, including:
- Aatmay, Rosie and Hannah’s clauses and bolstering green leases
- Anna’s Clause and navigating climate related financial disclosures
- Tristan’s Clause and procuring greener materials
- Tackling Scope 3 emissions and drafting for commercial contracts
- Madhavi’s clause and how MMC can help meet your sustainability objectives
- Considerations when procuring public contracts
- Navigating the rise in climate change disputes and utilising TCLP’s dispute resolution tools
- Climate related drafting for agricultural and rural land
- There’s Something About Mary’s Clause
- Procuring renewable energy and drafting for supply chain contracts
Download the full Change The Precedent, Change The World report