Leading Portuguese firm, Vieira de Almeida provides legal services in the areas of climate change, carbon trading, green taxation, environmental regulation, and energy transition and decarbonisation. Additionally, it has a team specialised in the legal impacts and implications of the constantly evolving environmental regulatory framework across various sectors. The firm’s ESG Integrated Services Platform, coordinated by of counsel and head of the environment practice Assunção Cristas, brings together all relevant practice areas to provide clients with an integrated ESG view of their activities and transactions in Portugal and aboard.

In the financing space, the firm continues to advise Greenvolt on the issue of green bonds with a total nominal value of €100m, the proceeds of which shall be allocated under the Green Bond Framework to the financing of renewable energy, integrated pollution control and prevention projects. The firm also advised all parties involved in the public subscription offering launched by Mota-Engil representative of the bond issue denominated “Sustainability-linked Bonds Mota-Engil 2022-2027” of up to €70,000,000 Notes due in 2027.

In another highlight, the firm assisted with the setting up of a Portuguese law governed real estate investment fund aiming at investing in the sustainable forestry and agriculture sectors, the first of this kind qualified as an Article 9 financial product under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“dark green” product) committed to climate goals but also biodiversity protection and recovery.

The firm’s internal ESG strategy is led at the highest level by senior partner Joao Vieira de Almeida. The firm has been measuring its carbon footprint since 2011 in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology, monitoring its performance in terms of energy consumption, materials, water, and mobility. Its Green Project promotes the adoption of sustainable practices with the goal of obtaining zero-carbon status.

The firm is a member of the UN Global Compact, the Legal Sustainability Alliance, and Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Portugal, as well as a signatory of initiatives including act4nature Portugal and Lisboa Green European Capital 2020.