We offer sustainable fund set-up and conversion with first class expertise in real estate, infrastructure, private equity and debt funds. We also provide ongoing ESG advice during the fund’s life to support clients to manage ESG risks and benefit from ESG opportunities. We advise our investor clients (including sovereign wealth funds and pension schemes) when investing into a fund to ensure their own specific ESG policies as well as any applicable regulations are addressed in the terms agreed with the fund sponsor in light of sponsor’s own obligations and market practice. Additionally, we advise investor clients on their own ESG strategy, policies and procedures. Finally, we provide holistic advice to our clients (those managing funds and those investing into funds) on strategic positioning of their organisation on a short, mid, and long-term basis taking into account geographical differences.

Our market-leading DCM practice advises on green, social and sustainability use of proceeds bonds and sustainability-linked bonds, offering cutting-edge expertise across the full range of capital markets products. We regularly advise corporate issuers and banks on these types of bond transactions and have regular dialogue with a range of market participants, including issuers, structurers and investors.

Our ESG bond practice and experience span our European, North American and Asian offices and draw on the support of the firm’s market-leading tax, corporate, ESG, energy and regulatory capital practices to provide clients with a full-service offering.

Linklaters is a leader in green, social and sustainability-linked lending and our market-leading banking lawyers regularly advise borrowers and lenders on all aspects of these transactions across the credit spectrum. Our sophisticated understanding of the markets in which our clients operate and the challenges they are likely to face, enables us to deliver innovative solutions on a global scale. We are at the forefront of legal and regulatory developments in ESG across Europe, Asia and the US, as national and regional regulators drive changes to the banking landscape. Our banking lawyers also draw on the support of the firm’s market-leading capital markets, corporate, tax, environment and climate change, energy and regulatory capital practices to provide clients with a full-service offering.

The derivatives and structured products space has seen increased interest in sustainable investment opportunities. We are seeing “green” regulatory capital transactions and synthetic securitisations, green structured notes (including repackagings of sustainable commodities, repackagings of green and blue bonds and structured notes with payouts linked to green benchmarks and funds) and sustainable swaps. The DSP team have also been advising benchmark administrators on the application of the new ESG benchmark disclosure requirements. They work closely with the environment team whose carbon and forestry commodities practice complements their own.

Our specialist carbon team has been at the forefront of the carbon markets for over 15 years. Linklaters is one of a very few firms which continued to actively support clients in this field throughout the carbon market downturn of the past few years. And as a result we have acted for governments, public-private organisations, multilateral organisations, finance institutions and private entities alike on the market’s most significant carbon transactions, such as advising the World Bank on an innovative rainforest bond used to finance a REDD+ project in Kenya.

We are proud to have advised across the full spectrum of potential deal structures, including carbon offtakes, intermediations, pre-pays, carbon financings, equity investments, carbon funds (compliance and financial), credit packages, carbon-structured notes and carbon-linked notes. We have acted for clients in developing carbon offset programmes and climate finance arrangements, including innovative forestry transactions.