energy
electricity
emissions trading
oil and gas
renewables
utilities
« Back to Practices

emissions trading

Emissions trading schemes are designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by allowing parties to buy and sell allowances for emissions and credits for reductions in emissions (together, carbon credits). Emissions trading, in its simplest terms, is the buying and selling of carbon credits.  McMillan LLP provides comprehensive legal advice to project sponsors, investors, GHG emitters, market intermediaries and their advisors who wish to create, use and/or trade carbon credits for investment or compliance purposes in Canada and abroad, including legal advice to parties entering into bi-lateral contracts to buy and sell carbon credits in regulated and voluntary markets.

Lawyers at McMillan LLP experienced in emissions trading advise clients on the complex compliance issues and burgeoning business opportunities that GHG reductions and trading are generating globally. As more jurisdictions set emission targets, businesses need expert advice on how to best prepare for compliance, develop carbon projects and take full advantage of the sophisticated market for carbon which already exists in Europe and is anticipated in North America.

Lawyers in the firm's emissions trading practice also work closely with their colleagues in the firm's electricity, oil and gas, renewable energy, environmental and other practice areas.  The firm is able to provide comprehensive legal services including finance, corporate, regulatory, tax and securities advice to all businesses impacted by climate change.

Representative Transactions/Cases
  • Representing a national green power retailer in the purchase and retirement of environmental attributes and credits
  • Advising a major electricity generator in on market opportunities concerning the sale of NOx allowances
  • Advising a carbon market intermediary on Canadian securities issues
  • Representing a green technology manufacturer in selling technology and reserving environmental attributes
  • Advising on the sale of renewable energy credits and electricity from wind farms to an Alberta municipality
  • Representing the operator of two landfill-gas fueled power plants in Ontario and advising on the protection and possible commercialization of carbon credits
  • Advising a pulp producer in British Columbia on the sale of offset credits
  • Representing a B.C. based construction group in its purchase of a corporation dedicated to sourcing, developing and trading carbon credits and biofuels
  • Representing B.C. based carbon credit broker on agreements for the sale of carbon credits
  • Negotiating an off-take agreement in respect of biofuels production and related carbon offsets and emission performance credits from a $250 million plant proposed for southern Alberta
  • Advising the purchaser of a renewable energy project in PEI with respect to cross-border sale of environmental attributes into the United States

Publications / Presentations
December 2011
California launches cap and trade – will other WCI jurisdictions follow?
energy and emissions trading bulletin
August 2011
Carbon Capture and Storage: Emerging Legal and Regulatory Issues
Contributing Author Henry Krupa, Hart Publishing, Oxford, Editors Richard Macrory, Ian Havercroft, and Richard B Stewart
July 2011
We need to talk: The case for a multidisciplinary approach to designing green policy
Pure and Applied Chemistry Vol. 83, No. 7, pp. 1351-1360




Jean-François Pelland
514.987.5081
David E. Thring
416.307.4028
Karl E. Gustafson, QC
604.691.7427