What is commercial environmental law: a UK case study

The document defines commercial environmental law as the regulatory framework businesses must follow to protect the environment, specifically within the UK context. It highlights the UK Climate Change Act 2008's target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and discusses the implementation of the polluter pays and precautionary principles through regulations such as the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 and the UK Town and Country Planning Regulations 2015. The author notes challenges in applying these principles, including corporate efforts to hide damage and the tendency for economic pursuits to take priority over environmental ethics.

• Commercial environmental law is defined as the set of laws businesses must follow, in addition to human rights due diligence, to protect their operating environment, with regulations increasing as the UK pursues net zero targets.
• The UK has a legislated target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050 under the Climate Change Act 2008.
• The polluter pays principle is implemented via the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015, which allow the Environment Agency to enforce action and impose fines or prosecutions on corporate bodies that breach their duty of care to the environment.
• The precautionary principle is applied through Environmental Impact Assessments required by the UK Town and Country Planning Regulations 2015, ensuring local planning authorities consider potential significant effects of developments on the community and environment.
• The application of environmental principles faces significant hurdles: the polluter pays principle is undermined by the difficulty of proving the source of damage and corporate concealment (e.g., the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal), while the precautionary principle often loses out to economic and societal development priorities.

APA

Contributor, C. (2023). What is commercial environmental law: a UK case study. ClimaTalk. https://climatalk.org/2023/09/11/what-is-commercial-environmental-law-a-uk-case-study/

Chicago

Contributor, ClimaTalk. What is commercial environmental law: a UK case study. ClimaTalk, 2023. https://climatalk.org/2023/09/11/what-is-commercial-environmental-law-a-uk-case-study/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Contributor |first1=ClimaTalk |title=What is commercial environmental law: a UK case study |publisher=ClimaTalk |date=11 September 2023 |url=https://climatalk.org/2023/09/11/what-is-commercial-environmental-law-a-uk-case-study/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{contributor2023what, author = {Contributor, ClimaTalk}, title = {{What is commercial environmental law: a UK case study}}, institution = {ClimaTalk}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://climatalk.org/2023/09/11/what-is-commercial-environmental-law-a-uk-case-study/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }