Renewable and sustainable energy, carbon credits and emissions trading
Our specialist clean energy and sustainability team is one of the leading teams in Europe and China and was recently awarded Renewable Legal Advisors of the Year (Euromoney/ Ernst & Young). We advise on all aspects of all renewable and clean energy technologies from on-shore and off-shore wind, biomass, waste and landfill gas to energy, geothermal, energy conservation, coal methane capture, cleaner coal, solar and hydro generation, bio-fuels and CDM projects. We understand the global renewable and clean energy market and have lawyers throughout the key jurisdictions.
Eversheds' China group also has experience in advising on climate change regulation including CDM.
With experts from our energy regulatory, environmental, venture corporate, project finance, construction and financial services teams, we can offer a uniquely integrated and comprehensive climate change, renewable energy and carbon trading team. We are structured to provide expert advice on all aspects of renewable and sustainable energy transactions, encompassing venture capital, project financing, investment, M&A, construction, permitting, CDM and carbon credit trading.
We have been extensively advising clients on project structuring, project financing environmental compliance, legal due diligence for renewable and clean energy projects and negotiation of Emission Reduction Agreements (ERPA).
We have been advising clients on these issues since the Kyoto Protocol took effect in 2005, through seminars and discussion forums, guidance and lobbying. We continue to monitor and advise on new climate change issues and policy measures in this fast changing and topical area.
Some of our team's prominent experience includes:
- advising a leading Chinese state-owned steel maker on one of the largest CDM projects of 2007 with comprehensive payment structures and agency arrangements, with estimated emission reduction around 28m tonnes up to 2012,
- advising a prominent UK carbon finance company on the financing of, and the purchase of CERs from, the CDM project in respect of the second line of Zhejiang Juhua,
- advising a leading beverage company on structure of CDM projects,
- advising a UK based carbon fund on general issues relating to host country approval and shareholding structure of its CDM projects,
- advising a leading investment bank on the establishment of a joint venture in the geothermal sector,
- advising JMD, a Japanese buyer, on a purchase of greenhouse-gas credits in China's first large-scale CDM business derived from the recovery and decomposition of global-warming gas HFC23 emitted by Zhejiang Juhua's HFC production in Zhejiang province, the largest CDM project in the world to that time, generating 5,000 tonnes of CERs per year and 40,000 tonnes in total up to 2012,
- advising a large Japanese trade and industrial development company in relation to a contract with a Chinese coal mining group to collect methane in Liaoning,
- advising various European carbon traders on purchase of CERs from wind projects and small hydro power projects across northern China and South-western China.
In China Eversheds LLP is a foreign law firm registered with the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China. Under current Chinese regulations, we are allowed to provide information concerning the impact of the Chinese legal environment, but, like all international law firms with offices in the PRC, we are not authorized to issue opinions, determinations, or certifications in respect of, the application of PRC law. We work in cooperation with a number of Chinese law firms. Should you require a legal opinion in respect of any Chinese law matter, we would be happy to assist you in obtaining an opinion from a Chinese firm.