Event Report

The Legal 500 returned to Tokyo for a timely and extremely informative roundtable discussion alongside Jones Day on the future impact of carbon markets on the drive towards net zero in Asia and Japan. Tokyo-based Jones Day lawyers Ming-Yee Lin and Lukas Kratochvil were joined by the specialists who had flown in for the occasion: Paul Greening from the Singapore office, Dickson Chin of New York and Dan Howard of Jones Day’s Brisbane offices. From the in-house legal side, we were delighted to welcome 20 of Tokyo’s top counsel, including those representing large multinational companies and Sogo Shosha, major Japanese-headquartered conglomerates.

Paul Greening and Dan Howard opened proceedings by giving a run down on different carbon market structures around APAC, highlighting which approaches have already come into force and which may be on the horizon in the future which could affect the Japanese market. Throughout, the point was emphasised that companies in Japan will be dealing with further regulation on their carbon emissions over time as the push towards cast-iron sustainability goals intensifies.

Lin and Kratochvil gave their perspective on the ground in Tokyo as to how their client base is reacting to sustainability measures and how their expertise can allow businesses to find creative solutions to issues they have encountered when enacting strategy.

Dickson Chin drove the conversation home with a comprehensive global rundown of how carbon markets have developed in both the United States and Europe. Managing to provide both a detailed instruction on sophisticated financial instruments and practical strategies for deals, this section of the conversation was particularly remarked upon by those in attendance.

Networking and Q&A followed, with everyone in attendance being presented with an extensive information pack for them to refer to when explaining concepts to their business leaders.

The Legal 500 is delighted that we were able to have such an esteemed group of attendees at this hugely informative roundtable. We look forward to many more events in Tokyo in the future.

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