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Under the Habitats Regulations 2017, if a local planning authority is required to carry out a habitats “appropriate assessment” for a development, it can only grant planning permission for the development where there is no likelihood of a significant adverse effect on any European designated nature conservation site (unless certain circumstances apply). High levels of…

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Introduction Climate change and energy are very much in the news at the present time. Positive excitement before Christmas with the UK hosting the prestigious COP 26 conference has deteriorated into political headaches over the spiralling costs of energy and its impact on UK consumers. But local authorities are large energy users too and will…

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An example of Local authority green action is illustrated in this article. West of England Combined Authority (WECA) plan to replace their climate change plan with a more ambitious one, as they were not on track to meet their 2030 climate change goal of achieving net zero. Their projections will mean reducing CO2 emissions each…

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In Contracts, the NEC has introduced the consultative form of its new “option X29” clause which aims to tackle misleading green claims made by suppliers (sometimes called “greenwashing”) and enable tangible net-zero requirements within contracts. For more information see the NEC statement and our article on option X29.

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