Some good news in Australian Lawyers Weekly this morning
They report
In response to a framework released by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, an opinion commissioned by Pollination Law and the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) said directors who rely on nature for success could face consequences if they do not consider, disclose and manage risks to the environment.
According to the legal opinion written by barrister Sebastian Hartford Davis and Environmental Defender’s Office senior solicitor Zoe Bush, these directors have a duty under the Corporations Act 2001 to do so.
“Directors should cause management to put them into a position to consider the materiality of such risks, take advice on how they should be managed and disclosed, and protect themselves from personal risk and liability by informing themselves and taking action appropriate so as to engage available defences,” Mr Hartford Davis and Ms Bush said.
Considering Australian law, the authors found risks could arise from the impacts on nature, which courts would consider foreseeable.
Referring to the judgment in Vrisakis v ASIC, Mr Hartford-Davis and Ms Bush wrote that a court will balance the “foreseeable risk of harm against the potential benefits that could reasonably have been expected to accrue to the company from the conduct in question”.
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