Key Points Opponents of the proposed Oakland A's stadium at Howard Terminal argued that the Governor missed a deadline to certify the project for an expedited environmental review pursuant to Assembly Bill (AB) 734, a special purpose bill. AB 734 contained no explicit deadline for certification, but it incorporated guidelines from AB 900, as amended, which did include a certification deadline ...
In seeking to address the impact of climate change within Hong Kong’s fund management industry, the SFC has introduced new climate-related regulatory requirements for fund managers in relation to disclosures and to their investment risk and management processes. In this ten-minute podcast, Jeremy Lam outlines key features of the new regime, the timeframe for implementation and how best to plan ahead ...
Key Points As litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) continues to drive lengthier and costlier environmental reviews, the use of "categorical exemptions" can provide a quick and efficient path towards CEQA compliance – but only if the exemption is legally sound and defensible. California's Fifth District Court of Appeal recently published Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. County of Inyo (Cal. Ct. App., Aug. 17, 2021, No ...
The effect of a successful application for a Certificate of Lawful Use is to regularise an historic, unlawful change of use of land without having to obtain planning permission ...
The real estate market in Dubai has been making significant improvements in 2021 after the successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the UAE. March 2021 had the highest number of transactions in 16 months as well as the highest number of secondary/ready properties transacted for foreigners in a single month since June 2015. This boom in sales resulted in record increases (23 per cent annual increase between April to June for luxury villas) ...
On September 2, 2021, Resolution of the Board of Directors Nº 017-2021-OEFA/CD (the “Resolution”) was published in the Official Gazette El Peruano, which amends the Regulation of the environmental emergency report of the activities under the purview of the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement- OEFA ...
Surfside Collapse – what we know so far: On Thursday, June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:25 a.m., Champlain Towers South, a twelve-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed. The collapse was reported as the third deadliest structural engineering failure in United States history. Ninety-eight people were confirmed dead, only four people were rescued from the rubble ...
The Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (“DFFE”) recently published a notice inviting consultation on her intention to publish a National Guideline for Consideration of Climate Change Implications in Applications for Environmental Authorisations, Atmospheric Emission Licences and Waste Management Licences (the “Guideline”) ...
Regulation 603/2021 was approved by the Governing Board of the Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction I.P. (“IMPIC”) and came into force on 5 July 2021. The aim of this regulation (“Regulation”) is to establish and regulate the procedures to be adopted in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in the real estate sector ...
[!<CDATA[ Multi-building condominium projects often raise unique legal issues as they do not squarely fall within the definitions used in state statutes. The Minnesota Supreme Court recently addressed the unique nature of multi-building condominium projects in Village Lofts at St. Anthony Falls Association v. Housing Partners III-Lofts ...
The objectives in brief The Government would like to see the aquaculture industry grow, provided that it can do so in a sustainable manner. Statistics produced by the Directorate of Fisheries show that Norway produced and sold a total of just under 1.5 million tonnes of rainbow trout, trout and Atlantic salmon in 2020 ...
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced details of requirements for fund managers to address climate change in their investment and risk management processes and make appropriate disclosures. Where are the requirements set out? On 20 August 2021, the SFC issued: Consultation Conclusions on the Management and Disclosure of Climate-related Risks by Fund Managers with amendments to the Fund Manager Code of Conduct (FMCC) set out in Appendix B and C ...
It will be news to few that the construction industry is experiencing a serious shortage of key materials. The Construction Leadership Council first warned of shortages (in timber, steel, pitched roofing, plastics, paints/coatings, some electronic components and cement – among other materials) early this year, and has reiterated its concerns since ...
Key Points Ninth Circuit reaffirms the “significant nexus” test for determining whether filling certain wetlands in 2007 violates the Clean Water Act The narrower test for determining the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction under the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule did not apply since it postdated the 2007 filling of the wetlands ...
The freeze partnership is an often overlooked estate tax planning tool. Unlike more common estate tax planning vehicles, the freeze partnership is not a trust and, as the name implies, is a closely-held partnership, limited partnership or LLC (in this article, the term partnership will be used to refer to partnerships, limited partnerships and LLCs) ...
Water Law On August 20, 2021, the Deputy Director of the Division of Water Rights (Deputy Director) of the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) issued water curtailment orders for the remainder of August and for all of September to approximately 4,500 water right holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed (Delta Watershed). These curtailment orders affect post-1914, pre-1914, and riparian rights, though in different ways, as described further below ...
The Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group co-chaired by the HKMA and the SFC (Steering Group) announced on 15 July 2021 the next steps to advance its strategy to bolster Hong Kong’s position as a leader in green and sustainable finance and help transition the financial ecosystem towards carbon neutrality ...
As we approach COP26 in Glasgow in November, a vast amount of policy development is underway to help develop the strategies we need to address the global climate crisis. A central challenge is changing consumer behaviour, which is a complex and multi-faceted issue. It raises questions around affordability, such as changing heating systems, purchasing zero emissions vehicles and better insulating our homes ...
“We have to hurry, we have to get faster in the fight against climate change.” Those were the words of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, after surveying the devastation caused by record floods in western Germany in early July. Private transport is one of the world’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, with emissions rising every year, and the transition to electric vehicles is fundamental in the fight against climate change ...
Following the passage of its commercial eviction moratorium for certain qualified tenants in December 2020,[1] the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, on August 4, 2021, provided additional assistance to the same class of “Covered Commercial Tenants” by establishing a new evidentiary presumption aimed at excusing payment of past due rent. To the extent applicable, the presumption applies to all past due rent as of March 16, 2020 ...
