Baker McKenzie has a long-standing history of participation and involvement in the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP), advising governments, companies and other entities on implementing the Paris Agreement and leading on the development of both international and domestic carbon markets.
The team will be on the ground in Dubai for COP28 and look forward to engaging in ground-breaking discussions with all key stakeholders to share insights and continue to offer cutting-edge advice to our clients. In the meantime, we have prepared a series of primers on what we expect to be some of the key themes for COP28.

On 5 June 2023, Federal Decree Nos. 11,546, 11,547, 11,548, 11,549, and 11,550 were enacted, setting forth provisions related to climate change.

On 16 May 2023, the National Consumer Secretariat (SENACON) published Technical Note No. 14/2023, establishing guidelines for confronting racism within the scope of consumer relations.

On 12 April, Justice Secretary Flavio Dino issued an ordinance that makes it possible to hold digital platforms accountable for the dissemination of content that promotes violence in schools. The document sets forth specific obligations for platforms, such as the immediate removal of certain content after a request from the competent authorities, systemic risk assessment, adoption of measures to prevent the spread of new threats to schools and a policy of active content moderation by application providers. In addition, platforms must prepare reports for the justice secretariat analyzing the risk factors of spreading certain illegal content, and whether recommendation algorithms or other algorithms used by platforms, as well as the content moderation practices adopted, contribute to such risk factors.

A series of briefings that take a bite-size look at international trends in different jurisdictions, drawing on Baker McKenzie’s expert financial services practitioners with local market knowledge. This edition takes a bite-size look at the latest environment, social and governance developments in Brazil, the European Union, Belgium, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

Two new regulations were published on 13 February 2023. The regulations, which directly impact the business sector, are the following: (i) Federal Decree No. 11,413/2023, which established three new reverse logistics credit certificates at the federal level: the Reverse Logistics Recycling Credit Certificate, the Certificate of Structuring and Recycling of Packaging in General and the Future Mass Credit Certificate; and (ii) Federal Decree No. 11,414/2023, which reinstituted and reformulated the pro-scavengers program, subject of former Federal Decree No. 7,405/2010, revoked in 2020.

On 1 February 2023, State Decree No. 112/20231 was published, establishing the take-back requirements system for packaging in the state of Mato Grosso. The decree is the first specific regulation on the subject in MT, regulating the state policy for solid waste (Law No. 7,862/2002) in this regard.

On 17 January 2023, State Decree nº 16,089/20231 was published, establishing and updating the take-back requirements system for packaging in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In summary, the decree becomes the new regulatory standard on the take-back requirements system for packaging in the state.

IBAMA Directive No. 16, which became effective on 5 December 2022, introduced a system for Forestry Traceability Source Document (DOF+)as a tool for issuance, management and monitoring of mandatory licenses for the transport and storage of forestry products from native species in Brazil.

Baker McKenzie and Trench Rossi Watanabe* were again on the ground at this years’ COP27 conference held in Sharm-el-Sheik. The team led a three-part webinar series focused on developments and impact of this year’s COP on emerging markets and key takeaways following the event, which they note had a strong focus on implementation.