The Law of Net Zero and Nature Positive

This book is the first that provides a comprehensive overview of the law of net zero and nature positive. While the book focuses on England and Wales, it also sets out the wider domestic and international context and relevant law, including the principal domestic and European legislation, in particular the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Environment Act 2021, and how legal obligations in respect of net zero and nature positive translate across different sectors of the economy.

The book reflects the fact that climate change is a global phenomenon and that the international legal and policy context give shape to domestic legal obligations.

The book considers biodiversity alongside net zero. This is important because human-induced climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked. Climate change has caused major changes to ecosystems beyond that expected through natural climate variability, and climate change solutions have the potential to either put biodiversity at risk (e.g. large-scale bioenergy) or help restore nature (e.g. nature-based solutions). Biodiversity is important in underpinning the resilience of certain habitats to climate change. Given this interdependency, and the fact that nature itself is often forgotten, the book aims to bring together the legal obligations in respect of both net zero and biodiversity so that practitioners, policy-makers and others interested in this area have both objectives in mind as they seek to address the challenge of our generation: climate change.

The book is divided into eight sections: Introduction, Planning and Environmental, Property, Environmental Protest, Public International Law, Commercial and Financial Services, Fiscal Measures, Construction.

The Law of Net Zero and Nature Positive will be an invaluable resource for a wide range of private and public sector actors across the economy including the legal profession (barristers, solicitors, the judiciary, and in-house counsel), the policy sector, non-governmental organizations and academia, including students.