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CCCA_V3No2_Dept-Environment-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No2_Dept-CrossBdr-V1.qxd 4/28/09 11:32 AM Page 15 Environment competitiveness,said Karen Graham,senior Canadian buyers of carbon offsets.They can individual countries are moving ahead: for policy analyst with the Business Council of help manage the risk, said Uto, but the example, the UK plans to reduce its carbon British Columbia:“Commercially sensitive quality of the offsets is very important. emissions by 20% by 2020, the EU will information should be protected.”She sug- Moreover, Canadian companies have to soon be auctioning 100% of its carbon gests that there might be an ideal role in seek out offset opportunities: there’s no liq- allowances, and the U.S. is pushing forward this regard for an independent third-party uid market for them in Canada, so “they to a cap-and-trade system. verification intermediary. don’t just show up at your door,” she said. Many of the in-house lawyers on the At this point,the main drivers of environ- She recommends acting early on carbon panel expressed frustration with the frag- mental compliance are customers, added offsets:there are risks to this market,but the mented approach that results from numer- Valerie Seager, vice-president and general pros outweigh the cons, and it can prepare ous individual jurisdictions carving their counsel of Catalyst Paper Corporation in the company better on environmental risk own paths and from a lack of international Richmond, B.C.“Investors and analysts are management than its rivals. cooperation or harmonization.This exposes not yet focusing on climate change-related companies to numerous divergent regimes issues,”she noted. Coordinating or collabo- International regulatory regimes and requirements. Carbon taxes, for exam- rating with other companies on climate On the global scene, said PriceWaterhouse- ple, would have the effect of penalizing a change issues is not yet common, but her CoopersAssociate Partner Christine Schuh, company based in one jurisdiction while its company does work closely with govern- the United Nations is in the process of rivals in other jurisdictions remain safely out ments at the federal and provincial level to negotiating a successor to the Kyoto of reach. meet environmental compliance goals. Protocol, which expires in 2012.There are Doing due diligence in climate-change numerous hurdles to creating a new system, Jordan Furlong is the Executive Editor of issues is a challenge,noted Seager.When her and not much time to overcome them. But CCCA Magazine. company recently acquired a coal-fired paper mill inArizona,she engaged local counsel regarding environmental risks at the state and federal levels. It’s diffi- cult to quantify risk from a due dili- gence perspective, she noted, because you can’t predict how regulations will evolve.Not only that,but bankers tradi- tionally have not been concerned with guidance connected interests climate change due diligence. Mitigating risk When it comes to environmental risk mitigation, Kinga Uto, commercial advisor with EPCOR Utilities Inc. in Calgary, recommended taking a port- folio approach. EPCOR invests in a wide range of technologies and strate- balanced thinking high performance gies, including renewable resources, carbon capture and storage technolo- what’s in a name? gies, and greenhouse gas emission off- sets. EPCOR began this approach Yours is a leadership agenda. And so is ours. By combining with approche personnalisée haute performance voluntarily in 2005, and has seen the Thackray Burgess, McMillan now serves its high performing Canadian, US and other global clients from offices in Calgary as well as Toronto rules change frequently over that time: and Montréal. McMillan knows what it takes to help you operate at there have been several different ever higher levels of performance. So you can take the lead. regimes at the federal level alone in the past few years. EPCOR is also one of the largest McMillan LLP | Calgary | Toronto | Montréal | mcmillan.ca ÉTÉ 2009 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 15