News
Climate Change expert to speak at Conference
International climate change expert, Bell Gully partner Simon Watt, is moderating a session at the upcoming 7th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference.
The annual conference is being held in Wellington on 1-2 August.
Simon's session entitled "The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: the five big issues and implications for Australia" follows the recent announcement that Australia will begin to levy a carbon tax from 2012 and move to an emissions trading scheme in three years' time.
Simon specialises in public sector and climate change work and leads Bell Gully's climate change practice. He has advised the New Zealand Government on the development of the legal framework for emissions trading and on climate change legislation. Simon also advises businesses, both domestically and internationally, on carbon trading and on the implications of the Kyoto Protocol and New Zealand's emissions trading scheme. He has advised the Provincial Government of Aceh, Indonesia on the world's first avoided deforestation project, and the Bangladesh Parliament on the link between climate change and human rights obligations under United Nations conventions.
Since 2008, Chambers Global, a premier worldwide legal directory based on independent research, has consistently ranked Bell Gully as one of only a dozen leading law firms globally in the climate change area and Simon as one of a select group of lawyers world-wide identified as leading legal experts in this area. Chambers also describes him as "an intelligent and considered adviser who has credibility in both the private and public sector."
