Draft Regulations Set to Amend GB Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation

The draft Persistent Organic Pollutants (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (“Draft Regulations“) have this week been laid before Parliament and are set to come into force on 16 December 2026. They will amend the post-Brexit, assimilated version of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation (EU 2019/1021) as it applies in Great Britain (“GB POPs Regulation“). In Northern Ireland, the EU POPs Regulation continues to apply.

The Draft Regulations will amend Annex I of the GB POPs Regulation to prohibit the manufacturing, placing on the market, and use of five POPs:

UV-328 (commonly used as an ultraviolet absorber for plastics)
Dechlorane Plus (DP) (a flame retardant)
Chlorpyrifos (an insecticide used on fodder crops and grassland)
Medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs)
Long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs)

On account of their properties, these substances are used in a range of applications and across many industries, so consideration of (i) the exemptions to the bans and (ii) the ‘unintentional trade contaminants’ (“UTC“) limits will be particularly important for businesses evaluating the impact of the bans.

The Draft Regulations also amend the UTC limits for PFOS, which was already designated as a POP, and that of the PBDEs (tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and deca-BDE) when present in mixtures and articles.

We have (somewhat) been here before. In 2025, regulations amending the GB POPs Regulation to prohibit manufacturing, placing on the market, and use of DP and UV-328 were introduced (by a first and second set of regulations) and subsequently omitted within weeks following concerns voiced primarily by medical industry stakeholders.

‘POP’ is the designation given to substances that are persistent, toxic, bio-accumulative, and subject to long-range environmental transport. These changes at local level are being made on account of the UK’s commitments as a member of the Stockholm Convention.

Our Environmental, Safety, and Health team advises clients on both the GB and EU POPs Regulations and has recently reported on the outcome of the Government consultation on POPs in our latest edition of frESH Law Horizons, available here.

Modernising corporate reporting: The shift from ESG reporting to sustainability-related financial disclosure

By Begonia Filgueira and Benjamin Morgan on October 2, 2026 Posted in Climate Change & Sustainability

On 7 September 2026, the government launched its consultation on modernising corporate reporting. The consultation runs until 30 November 2026, and proposes wide-ranging changes to the UK’s corporate reporting framework, including the provisions that currently underpin non-financial reporting, or what has become known as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

This briefing focuses on the sustainability-related reporting proposals within the consultation and taken as a whole, the consultation points towards a reporting framework that places greater emphasis on investor decision-useful information and financially material sustainability risks and opportunities. This is consistent with the publication of the UK’s Sustainability Reporting Standards (SRS), UK SRS S1: General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability related Financial Information and UK SRS S2: Climate-related Disclosures, which were endorsed and published by the government on 25 February 2026, and are currently available for voluntary use. While the consultation does not propose mandatory reporting against UK SRS, it may signal a future pathway towards broader adoption of UK SRS-based reporting within the UK’s corporate reporting framework.

Extended Producer Responsibility Beyond Waste: AG Kokott’s Opinion proposing partial annulment of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive a Watershed?

By Manon Ombredane and Peter Sellar on September 11, 2026 Posted in Environmental, Water Quality

Few concepts have shaped EU environmental law as profoundly as the polluter pays principle.

Despite its apparent simplicity, its implementation continues to raise a number of questions, such as who qualifies as the “polluter” and which mechanisms, from taxes to extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, should be used to transfer the costs of environmental protection to those deemed responsible for the resulting impacts.

These questions are becoming increasingly relevant as the European Union relies on and is expected to further expand the use of extended producer responsibility schemes beyond their traditional role in waste management.

AI Data Centres in the UK: Environmental Permitting and Consenting Risks

By Caroline Almond and Will Swarbrick on August 12, 2026 Posted in Environmental

Our firm has published an article on the environmental consenting landscape for artificial intelligence data centres in the UK, a sector that is developing quickly and being actively encouraged by the UK Government. The article looks at how the consenting position is shaped by the infrastructure needed to operate these facilities, particularly power, cooling, water and grid connections. It also considers why early design decisions can have a significant effect on permitting requirements, planning strategy and future challenge risk.

Read the full update here.

Waste carriers, brokers and dealers reform: What to expect

By Begonia Filgueira and Cristina Vela Gonzalez on August 6, 2026 Posted in Environmental, Solid & Hazardous Waste

If you are a waste carrier, broker or dealer in England, your registration will no longer be valid from 22 July 2027. You will instead need to take out an environmental permit and be subject to identity checks and criminal record checks, prove your technical competence to transport and make decisions about waste, as well as be required to display a permit number on your vehicles and advertising. The Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (CIWM) is currently working with the Environment Agency to support the delivery of the new Controllers and Transporters Competence Scheme, which will require learning, assessments and digital certification to prove technical competence before a permit is granted.

Waste activities are under greater scrutiny, and it is worth noting that a new penalty is also being introduced for waste transporting and controlling offences of up to five years’ imprisonment. The current Burnham government has also appointed a minister that will deal with waste crime and the circular economy, which only emphasises the focus on waste enforcement.

Colorado’s Class VI Primacy and the Colorado–Wyoming MOU: Streamlined and Coordinated Permitting May Benefit Carbon Capture and Storage Projects

By Phil Sandick, Michael Cox and Ghislaine Bruner on August 6, 2026 Posted in Air Quality, Water Quality

The Rocky Mountain West is quietly becoming the most organized regulatory environment in the country for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. Two developments this spring deserve close attention:

1) The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rulemaking granting Class VI underground injection control (UIC) well primacy to the State of Colorado, and

2) An interstate Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Colorado and Wyoming to coordinate cross-border CCS projects.

As explained below, EPA’s final grant of primacy, coupled with the MOU, should provide Colorado and Wyoming CCS project developers and sponsors with increased speed and consistency of permitting and project review. They should also reduce risk for interstate projects that could otherwise face uncertainty regarding ownership and liability if injected CO₂ migrates across the CO-WY state boundary.

Operators planning Class VI wells and CCS projects near the Colorado-Wyoming border should begin aligning permitting strategy, title diligence, and stakeholder engagement with the emerging state framework ahead of EPA’s final decision on the proposed rule.

Consultation opens on Draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting for certain non-EU companies

By Begonia Filgueira and Cristina Vela Gonzalez on August 3, 2026 Posted in Climate Change & Sustainability

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has opened a 100-day consultation between 23 July and 31 October 2026 on the draft ESRS that apply to certain non-EU companies reporting under CSRD. This is relevant if you are, for example a UK, US or Japanese company with a large presence in the EU, whatever sector you operate in.

This exposure draft sets out what type of sustainability information certain non-EU undertakings need to disclose in accordance with Article 40a of the Accounting Directive – to be known as ESRS-40a. The CSRD for these companies will be known as the ‘ESRS-40a Sustainability Report’.

Truth mandated, speech challenged: Federal judge issues preliminary injunction on the enforcement of California’s SB 343 “Truth in Recycling” law on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds

By Kendra Sherman, Allen Kacenjar, Danelle Gagliardi and Abigail Dop on July 22, 2026 Posted in Climate Change & Sustainability, Packaging and Packaging Waste

Our firm published this prior client alert to help companies prepare for California’s SB 343, known as the “Truth in Recycling Law,” which is set to become effective on October 4, 2026. However, the law was recently challenged in the US District Court for the Southern District of California by a coalition that includes the Flexible Packaging Association and the American Forest & Paper Association, and earlier this week on July 14, 2026, that court issued a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of SB 343 pending further proceedings in litigation. Read the full update here.

The Tenth Circuit Reopens Door to Antiquities Act Challenges in Garfield County v. Trump

By Alex Arensberg and Carolyn L. McIntosh on July 21, 2026 Posted in Environmental Litigation

On June 23, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a significant decision in Garfield County, Utah v. Trump, Nos. 23-4106 & 23-4107, holding that federal courts may review—and that sovereign immunity does not necessarily bar—challenges to a President’s designation of national monuments under the Antiquities Act. While the court stopped short of deciding whether President Biden’s expansions of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments actually exceeded statutory limits, it vacated the district court’s dismissal and remanded for the district court to interpret the Act’s substantive limits in the first instance. The decision sets up what could become the first judicial invalidation of a national monument proclamation in the statute’s 120-year history, and it deepens an emerging body of appellate authority subjecting presidential monument designations to ultra vires review.

On July 13, 2026, before the district court took up the remanded issues, President Trump issued two proclamations, one shrinking the Bears Ears monument from approximately 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,000 acres and the second shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante monument from approximately 1.87 million acres to approximately 182,000 acres. The prior proclamations issued by President Obama, Proclamation 9558, and by President Biden, Proclamation 10285, established the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Commission (BEC) to give Tribal Nations a formal role in the monument’s management, was also ordered terminated by President Trump. The July 13 proclamations open the removed lands to the multiple use public land laws, including US Forest Service sales, mineral entry under the mining law, and mineral and geothermal leasing under the mineral leasing laws.

OSHA Announces Informal Public Hearings on Proposed Deregulatory Actions

By Peter Gould, Cole Wist, Michael Cox and John Rainwater on July 20, 2026 Posted in Chemicals & Products, Health & Safety, Product Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced a series of informal public hearings regarding proposed deregulatory actions affecting workplace safety and health standards. The hearings follow proposed rulemakings published in the Federal Register on July 1, 2025 and April 6, 2026.

The proposed actions would impact a broad range of OSHA regulations, including requirements governing 16 chemical substances, respiratory protection, medical evaluations, walking-working surfaces, and color coding for marking physical hazards.

The informal public hearings will be conducted virtually beginning August 19, 2026 and will continue on subsequent weekdays.

The public comment period as well as registration for individuals or organizations wishing to testify, submit documentary evidence, or question witnesses is now closed. The hearings, however, will provide non-participating employers, industry groups, labor organizations, safety professionals, and other interested parties with an opportunity to listen to testimony and perspectives regarding the proposals. OSHA has emphasized that stakeholder participation is critical to ensure the agency considers the best available evidence as it evaluates potential deregulatory actions.