It is now several decades since environmental issues first became prominent in transactions. While frontline areas of practice in relation to environmental law have advanced and developed, most obviously in the areas of regulatory work and carbon trading, there remains a broad range of approaches to handling these issues in transactions. This article assesses how far transactional practice has moved on in response to experience and developments in regulatory systems and liability structures. In particular, it examines data deficiency and uncertainty, buyer's due diligence, whether a buyer takes on risks identified in due diligence, contractual protection issues, and other solutions.

This article is part of the PLC multi-jurisdictional guide to environment. For a full list of jurisdictional Q&As visit www.practicallaw.com/environmenthandbook.