Environment & Climate Change

The Environment has come to assume increasing importance in the European Union’s strategies and the public policies of its Member States, based on an awareness that over the next decades our economic and social development will demand the adoption of significant environmental commitments.

As a result, the Environmental regulatory framework has evolved at an accelerated pace, imposing new requirements and demands on both public and private entities.

VdA has a team specialised in the legal impacts and implications of this framework across various sectors, particularly the Energy and Maritime sectors, and with long experience in the provision of legal advice on Environmental matters, in the context of corporate, real estate and infrastructure transactions. 

Using interdisciplinary working methods, we advise on complex regulatory issues with the aim of ensuring that our clients successfully operate within the legal boundaries of each project (including in the African jurisdictions where VdA Legal Partners is present), where the need for support in dealing with environmental issues has become increasingly frequent.

Entities are now subject to strict environmental rules and requirements in various domains and are regularly named as defendants, whether by the State or by pressure groups, in legal actions aimed at establishing environmental civil responsibility. We have successfully represented countless clients in criminal, civil and administrative cases relating to the alleged violation of environmental, health and safety rules. Our vast local experience and knowledge of the Portuguese-speaking African jurisdictions and East Timor make VdA the first point of call in issues related to the Environment.