A member of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign, a founding member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, and a UN Global Compact signatory, Pinsent Masons LLP works with a wide range of organisations to promote a green transition, including the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and Legal Sustainability Alliance. In Australia, where the firm is also a member of the Clean Energy Council, its practice is heavily renewables-focused.

In Melbourne, head of Asia Pacific as well as Australia’s finance and projects team, James Morgan-Payler, assisted Vestas with a number of large-scale wind projects across Asia Pacific and advised Maoneng on the development of the 240MW Mornington BESS project. He also acted for K-Water in connection with the Tina River Hydro Development Project. Key contact for transactions, Ewan Robertson, recently advised Fortescue on the £164m acquisition of Williams Advanced Engineering to support its decarbonisation efforts.

Perth-based global hydrogen practice lead George Varma was a featured speaker at the Connecting Green Hydrogen APAC conference 2022; he is currently advising Shanghai Electric Power Construction on the development of the 300MW Rodds Bay Solar Farm, one of Australia’s largest solar farms.

In 2022, firm members also spoke at the Australia Wind Energy conference and the Offshore Wind Australia conference in Sydney, where renewable energy project expert Simone Alphonse is acting for Goldwind on the development of multiple wind and solar projects across Australia.

The firm also works on a number of climate change-related projects on a pro bono basis and for this purpose founded the One Million Hours Pledge, which is open to all organisations in the legal sector.

The firm’s aim to achieve a 50% reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2040 is SBTi validated. As part of this, the firm has committed to using 75% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2040.