The worldwide focus on carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases (GHG) is intensifying, and changes to their regulations and policies at nearly every level of government and business have the potential to broadly impact our lives and livelihoods. Our global, cross-practice team of lawyers has decades of experience in energy transition and renewables, carbon capture, storage and transportation, carbon trading, and commodity and derivatives regulation, and regularly works with entities engaged in the carbon market.
Whether viewed through the lens of decarbonization or carbon as a commodity asset, we see increasing efforts to manage and regulate carbon. Global efforts are underway to:
Transition the energy system and amplify the use of renewable energy.
Develop and deliver alternative no- and low-carbon fuels.
Regulate the emissions of GHG from industrial activities.
Establish markets where carbon credits are sold on a voluntary or mandatory basis.
Capture, transport, and sequester carbon dioxide in nature-based systems, in geological structures, or in commercial products.
Commoditize the value of sequestered carbon in transactable credits.
Standardize and verify the sequestration of carbon dioxide.
Develop liquid derivatives markets to allow for efficient hedging and exposure to voluntary carbon markets
We address many of these leading issues in our Carbon Quarterly publication.
Unlike other commodities, the commercial, regulatory, and policy frameworks for managing, regulating, and transacting carbon are still evolving. Through our fully integrated, global platform, we work seamlessly across practices and jurisdictions to provide tailored legal solutions in insurance coverage, intellectual property, tax, policy advocacy, environmental, corporate, commercial, regulatory enforcement, and dispute matters to help our clients harness opportunities, minimize risk, and achieve their ultimate goals and objectives.
Congress created a new framework around payment stablecoins but has done more than regulate a digital asset class—it has quietly set in motion a potential transformation of the regulation of core payment systems.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes major changes to the Internal Revenue Code’s clean energy tax provisions, particularly to the provisions that were extended, expanded, and established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has introduced a major revision of the Export Administration Regulations, 15 C.F.R. Part 730 et seq., through an Interim Final Rule extending EAR-based licensing controls on entities designated on the Entity List or Military End Users List or subject to EAR § 744.8 to affiliates in which they have a 50% or greater ownership interest directly or indirectly.
On 29 September 2025, the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued notice of an exemptive application filed by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, et al. Seeking relief to offer index-based or actively managed funds that have one or more mutual fund share classes and an exchange-traded fund share class.
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