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.
On 15 August 2025 the IRS released Notice 2025-42 (the Notice), which restricts the methods that developers of wind and solar projects can use to determine whether they have begun construction for purposes of the section 45Y production credit and the section 48E investment credit on and after 2 September 2025.
Under Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has quickly moved to implement Sections 4 and 5 of President Trump’s 7 July Executive Order 14315 titled “Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources.”
On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a series of “reciprocal” tariffs on US imports from all countries. The tariffs apply at different rates by country, starting at a baseline of 10% and reaching as high as 50%.
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