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(Ongoing) ERPA Advice:
Advising on, negotiating and drafting numerous
Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreements (ERPAs) from
a wide range of greenhouse gas mitigation project
activities and programmes, located in various sectors
from waste management to forestry. ERPAs are
commercial contracts for the purchase and sale of
carbon credits/offsets generated by greenhouse gas
mitigation project activities and programmes, e.g.,
Certified Emissions Reductions under the Clean
Development Mechanism and Verified Carbon Units under
the Verified Carbon Standard. Assignments have been
undertaken for, both, sellers and purchasers of carbon
credits/offsets, including municipalities, private
sector entities and Development Finance Institutions
(DFIs), and have encompassed our providing carbon
market and carbon finance strategic and practical
advice and designing and implementing tender processes
to identify appropriate purchasers. A detailed list of
carbon deals is available, on request.
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(Ongoing) Carbon Tax Advice:
Advising, and preparing legal opinions for, various
large-scale South African industrial clients on the
legal, operational, financial, strategic and carbon
offset implications of the domestic carbon tax legal
regime, including submissions to the National Treasury
and advice on company-wide legal compliance
strategies, pursuant to evolving South African climate
change policy and regulation.
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(Ongoing) Climate Change Law Regulatory Advice:
Legal advisors to various clients on climate change
corporate strategy; reporting and disclosure; and
integrated climate change regulatory compliance and
carbon tax strategic approaches, including advice to
the banking and insurance sectors on the implications
of domestic and international climate change legal
developments.
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(Ongoing) Environmental Law Regulatory Advice:
Legal advisor to various clients on water, waste,
atmospheric, energy and general environmental legal
compliance matters, including those issues arising
from regulatory action, authorisation and permitting
processes, as well as due diligence aspects of mergers
and acquisitions and project finance.
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2019 - 2020 (Ongoing) Carbon Offset Administration
System - Legal and Design:
Carbon market and carbon tax specialist legal counsel,
in a team led by Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute
(Indiana, USA), providing consulting services to the
South African National Treasury to develop and test
the guidance, assessment and approval process
framework for a national carbon offset standard, under
the Carbon Offset Administration System (COAS) of the
domestic carbon tax legal regime. The project is
supported by the World Bank’s Partnership for Market
Readiness.
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2019 Carbon Pricing Study In Sub-Equatorial Africa:
Leading a legal and technical team (South Africa and
Kenya) to conduct a study and prepare a report,
entitled: Carbon Pricing in Sub-Saharan Africa, the
purpose of which is to inform African and German
policy-makers on the status quo of African carbon
pricing discussions; and, the potential for future
strengthening of pricing mechanisms on the Continent,
including through the use of legislation. The study is
funded by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung; and, the
findings are (potentially) to be presented in Senegal
and Saudi Arabia, during 2020.
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2020 (Ongoing) Contributing Author To The IPCC AR6:
Contributing the climate change legal component of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
Working Group 2 (WG2), Sixth Assessment Report (AR6),
Chapter 17.
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2020 (Ongoing) Carbon Tax In South Africa: Book:
Authors of a book on the South African carbon tax, to
be published by Lexis-Nexis in 2020.
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2019 Directors Liabilty Advice:
Advising members of the South African Institute of
Directors and various commercial clients on evolving
considerations around directors’ liability for climate
change, pursuant to the outcomes of the Task Force on
Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and
international and national case law and developments
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2019 Carbon Offsets Advice:
Advising an international petroleum company on legal
and contracting issues relating to the domestic carbon
tax legal regime; and, the purchase and sale of
eligible carbon offsets under the regime’s Carbon
Offset Allowance.
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2019 Climate Change National Policy Advice:
Advising on the Seychelles National Climate Change
Policy, November 2019
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2019 Special Edition Of Climate & Carbon Law Review:
African Climate Change Law:
Co-authoring and co-editing a Special Issue of the
Carbon & Climate Law Review, entitled: Evolving
African Climate Change Law and Regulation, exploring
emerging climate change legislation and regulation, in
Africa. See:
https://cclr.lexxion.eu/article/CCLR/2019/4/0.
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2019 Advice On Climate Change Legislative Drafting:
Advising on draft climate change legislation in
Thailand (funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH – GIZ); and,
Zimbabwe (funded by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung).
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2019 Carbon Pricing In East Africa:
UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) Kampala;
GIZ and UN Environment: providing legal advice on the
potential introduction of carbon pricing instruments
in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mauritius, and Uganda,
including a review of and advice on laws and policies
within the respective jurisdictions
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2019 Climate Finance In SADC Countries:
Co-authoring a report entitled: Climate Finance Market
Study, for the Trade Desk of the Canadian High
Commission to South Africa, analysing climate finance
issues in the set of Southern African countries that
are the subject of the Trade Desk’s operations.
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2019 Climate Finance Policy Brief:
Preparing a Policy Briefing entitled: Improving
Sub-Saharan African Access to Climate Change Finance –
an alternative view, for the South African Institute
of International Affairs (SAIIA), the findings of
which were presented at an international event (funded
by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung), held in Addis-Ababa,
Ethiopia, in the latter part of 2019.
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2018-2019 CDM Project Legal Advisor:
City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality: legal
advisor in a multi-disciplinary team appointed to
provide ongoing carbon market services to the city,
including all of the city’s CDM projects.
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2019 Plastic Pollution Legal Review:
Preparing two reports, and related materials,
entitled: Marine Plastics & Coastal Communities –
MARPLASTICCS: Country Report: South Africa, for the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
the initial outcomes of which were presented at an
international meeting, held in Bonn, Germany, in May
2019.
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2019 MES Compliance:
Advising various large-scale South African industrial
clients on air quality legal compliance issues,
including preparing, submitting and managing
applications for postponement of the compliance
deadlines for the national Minimum Emissions
Standards, pertaining to air quality. Client
confidentiality applies to the identity of such
clients, which are located in the cement, aluminium
and resources sectors.
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2016 - 2018 Climate Change Legislative Drafting:
Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and Deutsche
Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ):
working with DEA’s Climate Change and Air Quality
Directorate and internal legal advisors to draft
national climate change legislative options,
encompassing mitigation and adaptation considerations,
and in light of South Africa’s participation in the
international climate change legal regime. The
assignment entailed our: advising on climate change
legislative options in other jurisdictions and on the
implications of the South African environmental legal
regime for the operation and administration of a
climate change statute; formulating the content of the
proposed legislation in discussion with the DEA;
developing a series of draft statutes; drafting an
options paper and a discussion document analyzing and
advising on the varying implications of different
legislative mechanisms; undertaking a socio-economic
impact assessment of the likely consequences of the
proposed legislation; advising on the most effective
means of ensuring cross-sectoral application of the
proposed legislation (in light of the South African
constitutional context); and, providing various
written legal opinions and oral advice relevant to the
assignment.
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2016 - 2017 Water Laws Harmonisation Project:
Zambezi Watercourse Commission: advisor to the Zambezi
Watercourse Commission in relation to integration of
regional laws and policies of eight riparian states of
the Zambezi river with a view to achieving water
security, with a focus on energy development and
climate change in the region.
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2016 - 2017 Carbon Market and Certified Emissions
Reductions (CERs) Transactional Advisors:
Omnia Fertilisers Limited – Transactional advice on
Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) for the
purchase and sale of CERs generated by Omnia’s CDM
project activities, including advising Omnia on carbon
market dynamics, CER pricing, the specifics of the
deal and negotiating and drafting elements of the
ERPA, as between Omnia (seller of CERs) and WeAct
International (buyer of CERs).
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2016 - 2017 Feasibility Study for Alternative Waste
Management:
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM): legal
advisors within a multi-disciplinary team providing
strategic advice to EMM in relation to alternative
waste management strategies, including: identification
of authorisation requirements relevant for the
specific projects; and, strategic carbon financial
legal advice pertaining to accessing carbon finance to
support project implementation.
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2016 - 2017 Feasibility Study for Private Sector
Energy Sales in South Africa:
United States Trade and Development Agency (donor
funder), Mott MacDonald International (Washington
office) and Solar Reserve South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
–legal, financial and technical feasibility study to
development recommendations on how Solar Reserve might
achieve the objective of generating and selling solar
power to municipalities and the private sector. This
project relates directly to the Feasibility Study for
Deregulation of the South Africa Energy Sector, and
many of the activities required within the scope of
that project were relevant for this assignment. This
project also entailed an analysis of the evolving
carbon and carbon tax markets and evolving legal
regimes and drafting legal opinions on how carbon
finance might be accessed to support Solar Reserve’s
objectives.
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2016 Feasibility Study for Deregulation of the South
Africa Energy Sector:
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Promethium
Carbon (Pty) Ltd: climate change, carbon and energy
legal advisors on a project aimed at identifying
mechanisms that would facilitate the deregulation of
the local South African energy sector. This project
included our advising on the first demonstration trade
of carbon offsets using the electronic platform
offered by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
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2016 - 2017 Carbon Offsets Advice:
Eskom SOC Ltd - advising Eskom (the South African
national power utility) on: the ownership of carbon
offsets generated by projects implemented under the
Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer
Procurement Programme; and, the consequences of
ownership of such offsets for, and potential for use
of such offsets to reduce, Eskom’s anticipated
liability for carbon tax.
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2014 National Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda:
Department of Energy and Mineral Development (Uganda)
– drafting the environmental legal component of the
National Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda (April 2014),
taking into account the requirements of Uganda’s
constitutional, administrative, environmental and
waste disposal legal regimes.
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2014 Sustainable Mining Framework: Eskom SOC Ltd:
development of a sustainable mining framework using
existing best practice guidelines and a set of legal
requirements applicable to Eskom’s suppliers of coal
in the Waterberg, including advising on appropriate
contractual mechanisms to implement best practice.
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2015 Carbon Markets and Contracting Training
project:
Law Society of Uganda - leading a team of lawyers to
devise and implement training aimed at providing
practical carbon markets legal training for Ugandan
lawyers with a focus on accessing carbon markets
support for the implementation of renewable energy
projects. This work was shortlisted in the
environmental category for the African Legal Awards
2015.
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2015 Carbon Finance Advice:
Advising SUNenergy (Pty) Ltd. – a South African
private sector solar company – on the utilisation of
carbon finance to support the development of their
business model and hardware sales, including strategic
carbon financial advice and guidance on mitigation
project implementation.
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2013 - 2015 Climate Change Law and Policy
Harmonisation Project:
Department of Environmental Affairs and GIZ –climate
change policy and legal advisors on the first and
second phases of the development of South Africa’s
Long Term Adaptation Strategy, with a focus on
achieving sectoral policy and regulatory alignment, in
collaboration with the South African National
Biodiversity Institute.
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2015 Advice on the International Climate Change
Legal Regime:
Business Unity South Africa – legal advice, provided
prior to UNFCCC COP21, on the scope and legal nature
of South Africa’s (then) existing and potentially
future legal obligations pursuant to the international
climate change legal regime – as delimited by the
UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC Decisions and as
anticipated to evolve in light of the (then) expected
outcome of COP22 (which gave new direction and impetus
to the international climate change response, in the
form of the Paris Agreement), in the context of South
Africa’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution
(INDC – now the NDC).
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2013 Waste Management Advice:
Heineken Ltd. (Uganda) – advising on, and running,
litigation launched against Heineken, in terms of
Uganda’s constitutional, administrative, environmental
and waste disposal legal regimes, aimed at compelling
the company to ensure appropriate collection, reuse
and recycling of the bottles and cans in which
beverage products are sold.
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2013 Energy Efficiency Advice:
Advisor to Adamas Attorneys, Paris, France, regarding
South Africa’s policy and legal regime applicable
energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes.
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2010 Carbon Capture and Storage:
South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage
(SACCCS - the lead government agency for Carbon
Capture and Storage [CCS]) - climate change, carbon
markets and environmental legal advisor on four
feasibility studies for the implementation of CCS
projects in South Africa. The studies considered
different aspects of the CCS project cycle and value
chain and, variously, included: determining the
meaning of the term “CCS capture readiness” in the
context of South African climate change and
environmental law and policy; describing the
environmental legal regime applicable to CCS,
including analyzing CCS technical specifications and
determining the authorization scheme required for
successful project implementation; and, working in
multi-disciplinary teams to conduct two fully
articulated feasibility studies (covering legal [our
responsibility], technical and project financial
aspects) for the development of SACCCS’s proposed CCS
demonstration project. Funders of the assignments
included the World Bank and by EuropeAid.
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2009 - 2010 Regional Climate Change Programme:
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office -
multi-disciplinary support and capacity-building
project for the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) to
the international climate change negotiations, in the
approach to, and following, UNFCCC COP15, held in
Copenhagen, Denmark, November and December 2009: ·
Climate change legal team leader, including to devise
capacity-building and training programmes and
materials for delivery to AGN negotiators.· Presented, delivered and facilitated capacity-building and training to AGN negotiators. · Researched and drafted analytical papers on specific aspects of the climate change negotiations, prior to and following COP15, which addressed issues of particular importance to the AGN, e.g., the significance of the Copenhagen Accord to the future of the negotiations and the AGN position. · Worked with multi-disciplinary team to deliver the over-arching programme deliverables. |
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2009 - 2010 CDM and Income Tax Act Advice:
Advising the South African National Treasury on
section 12K of the Income Tax Act, which provides for
tax exemption on income generated, by private sector
CDM project developers, from sales of CERs generated
by project activities located in the country,
including providing training to Treasury’s Tax Policy
Unit on the CDM project cycle and value chain, and
input into drafting appropriate legislative
provisions.
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2005 - 2008 CDM Advice:
DANIDA and the Royal Danish Embassy, Pretoria:
external legal counsel to the South African Designated
National Authority for the CDM, providing drawn-down
and ad hoc climate change, carbon market,
environmental, procurement and administrative legal
support across the DNA’s operations.
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2003 - 2012 Durban Landfill Gas to Power Generation
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project:
eThekwini Municipality:· External environmental, climate change and carbon markets legal counsel to the eThekwini Municipality, which owns and operates the Project. · Responsibility for all aspects of environmental, climate change and carbon markets law as these pertained to the Project from feasibility to beyond commissioning and full operation. · Identification of the full suite of authorisation requirements for the Project, including environmental and CDM-related authorisations and compliance considerations, and procurement issues arising from the operation of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Supply Chain Management Regulations. · Running tender processes to secure buyers of Certified Emissions Reductions and drafting and negotiating appropriate Emission Reductions Purchase Agreements. |
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2003 - 2008 CDM Programme - Climate Change and
Carbon Markets Advice:
Danida and the Royal Danish Embassy, Pretoria -
Climate change and carbon markets strategic legal
advice, and working with multi-disciplinary team to
identify and implement CDM power projects, including
renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
Duties included identification of environmental and
other authorisations and devising authorisation
schemes. Special Advisor to the Danish Climate Change
Attache for Africa (focused on providing advice to
inform the Danish Presidency of UNFCCC COP15).
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2003 CDM Capacity - Building Project for Developing
Countries:
UNIDO –advising on, and drafting the country report
for, the uptake of the CDM in South Africa. The
country report analysed the context of, and potential
for, significant and industrial-scale implementation
of CDM project activities; and, described the full
suite of climate change, carbon market, environmental,
administrative (including the DNA’s process and
requirements for sustainable development) and
municipal procurement legal aspects of the CDM in
South Africa; and, the assignment required our
presenting the report to a panel of international
carbon market experts, during a project feed-back
workshop held at UN/UNIDO headquarters in Vienna,
Austria.
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2003 Biosphere Reserves:
Drafting the Western Cape Biosphere Reserve Bill for
the provincial spatial planning department.
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