Jun 2007 - Australian Institute of Energy

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greatest potential for expanded biofuels production and greenhouse gas reductions. • We encourage the EWG to collaborate on alternative fuels with other international bodies, such as the IEA and the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBeP). • We encourage APEC economies to manage their growing dependence on oil for transportation through policies and measures to promote energy efficiency in transportation and to diversify the fuel mix using cleaner fuel sources. • We direct the EWG to develop best practice principles for energy efficient transport. PROMOTING CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY PRODUCTION AND USE Meeting growing energy needs with a lower environmental impact requires cooperation to improve energy efficiency, cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, attraction of additional energy investment and facilitation of cross-border energy trade. (e) Improving energy efficiency Improving energy efficiency is a cost-effective way to enhance energy security and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. There is great potential for energy efficiency improvements in the power generation, industrial, transportation, public, residential and commercial sectors. • We encourage APEC economies to individually set goals and formulate action plans for improving energy efficiency on an overall and/or sector basis. • We direct the EWG to collaborate with the IEA to develop energy efficiency indicators and compile best practices that can be used to help formulate and track progress towards such voluntary goals and action plans. • We direct the EWG to strengthen efforts to share information on energy efficiency policies and measures, identify effective energy efficiency approaches and review progress towards efficiency goals. • We encourage APEC economies to contribute to and utilise the APEC Energy Standards Information System (ESIS). (f) Developing and deploying cleaner and more efficient energy technologies New energy technologies can address energy security and provide environmental benefits by reducing greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants. To accelerate their deployment: • we encourage the development of cleaner and more efficient power generation technologies, including renewables, clean coal, natural gas/LNG, and for interested economies, nuclear technologies; • we direct the EWG to progress the development of clean fossil energy technologies, including carbon capture and storage; • we encourage EWG collaboration with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) on financing, policy and regulation; • we recognise the importance of progress in the uptake of new and renewable energy through the APEC 21 st Century Renewable Energy Development Initiative; • we encourage interested APEC economies to join the EWG’s Ad-Hoc Group on Nuclear Technologies and to ensure that the safety, security, seismic, health and waste handling aspects, including trans-border effects, of civilian nuclear energy are adequately addressed; and • we await EWG advice on the recommendations from the forthcoming meetings of regional nuclear safeguards experts. (g) Attracting energy investment and facilitating cross-border trade Meeting energy demand in the APEC region will require new investment of at least US$6 trillion to 2030. Significant economic benefits can be gained by removing barriers to such investment. • We encourage continued efforts by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Financing Task Force to help governments, businesses and financial institutions incorporate the value of energy savings in large-scale investment decisions. • We direct the EWG to review the uptake and currency of Best Practice Principles on: Accelerating Investment in Natural Gas Supplies, Infrastructure and Trading Networks in the APEC Region; Facilitating the Development of LNG Trade; Financing Energy Projects; and Natural Gas Trade. • We direct the EWG to contribute to the proposed APEC Energy Trade & Investment Study and Roundtable. • We encourage APEC economies to address the recommendations of the APEC Gas Forum. • We direct the EWG to continue implementation of its LNG Public Education and Communication Information Sharing Initiative. • We direct the EWG to continue cooperative efforts to improve natural gas data collection. (h) APEC Energy Peer Review Mechanism To assist interested economies in developing policies that support energy security and environmental objectives: • we direct the EWG to develop a voluntary Energy Peer Review Mechanism, with an initial focus on progress toward attaining energy efficiency goals. PROMOTING BROADER ENERGY COOPERATION Cooperation and partnership are essential to addressing energy security and environmental challenges that extend beyond the sphere of any single economy or the APEC economies as a group. In response: • we direct the EWG to further advance collaboration with other international energy fora, including the International Energy Agency; • we welcome the work of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) and await advice from the EWG on potential areas of cooperation; and • we direct the EWG to continue to report sustainable development activities to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. To get your copy of the Darwin Declaration, go to www. industry.gov.au/apec2007mediacentre/ 46 EnErgy nEws Vol 25 no. 2, June 2007
10 WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR LEGAL TEAM By Mark Kemp* Very few energy companies whose involvement in major infrastructure projects requires large scale land or easement acquisitions use their lawyers to best effect. Typically, such companies call their lawyers in at the beginning of these projects to ensure compliance with regulatory and planning issues, and then at the tail end to deal with any unresolved disputes with a small number of recalcitrant land owners. Using your legal team through the acquisition/construction phase of a project can save you money, avoid disputes and ensure that project timeframes are met. It is here that a good legal team can really prove its worth and deliver value for money. 1. INVOLVE THE LEGAL TEAM EARLY Don’t wait until discussions with land owners have already taken place. Involve your lawyers in those discussions and in any initial project team briefings so that they are familiar with and understand all of the issues surrounding the project. Involving your lawyers early is critical if there are likely to be issues which relate to particular owners or involve geographical features, endangered fauna and flora, or community sensitivities. 2. INVOLVE THE LEGAL TEAM IN COMMUNITY BRIEFINGS It is pretty much standard procedure nowadays for companies to hold community briefings and presentations in the major regional centres and towns along a project’s proposed route. For some inexplicable reason, lawyers, valuers, surveyors, engineers and other expert service providers are rarely included in such activities. But, who else can satisfactorily answer the questions that will be asked? The attendance of these service providers will increase the transparency of the project and help to alleviate any community distrust. 3. LET YOUR LEGAL TEAM PRESENT TO LOCAL LAWYERS Not only will a presentation enable your legal team to explain the project’s procedures, timeframes and lines of communication, but it will allow individual members to begin establishing their own comfortable relationships with the local lawyers who’ll be acting for various landowners. Meeting and greeting over a drink or some food is just as important as the company’s formal presentation and will break down the barriers between your legal team and the local lawyers with whom they might find themselves at loggerheads. 4. ENSURE YOUR LEGAL TEAM ESTABLISHES STRONG PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE LOCAL LAWYERS WHO WILL BE ACTING FOR THE LAND OWNERS Your legal team will be much better equipped to resolve potential disputes before they happen if they can have a friendly chat to an aggrieved landowner’s solicitor rather than having to rely solely on formal correspondence which is typically anything but friendly. When you’ve got a very tight construction timetable and an owner denies you access by locking the front gate, the chances are that a letter won’t bring about a speedy solution. Lawyer-to-lawyer relationships are essential when dealing with emotional owners who are facing compulsory acquisition. 5. GET YOUR LEGAL TEAM OUT OF ITS OFFICE AND INTO THE FIELD Not only will getting out and about enable your lawyers to develop a better knowledge and understanding of the project but it will help them build relationships with property owners and the local lawyers who represent them. You and your lawyers will both benefit if they visit the project site every month or so to update themselves on progress and meet with local lawyers and landholders. 6. ENSURE THAT YOUR LEGAL TEAM KNOWS AND BUILDS STRONG PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS Many issues that arise during the land acquisition phase of a project require contributions from your lawyers, surveyors and valuers. If you require efficient resolution, it is crucial that these service providers develop good professional and personal relationships so that they can work together. It is very difficult, for example, for lawyers to contribute to resolving compensation issue if they have no or only limited knowledge of the approach your valuer is taking. 7. ENSURE THAT THE LEGAL TEAM PREPARE AS MANY DOCUMENTS AS POSSIBLE Most companies will already have easement terms and although lawyers rarely need to be involved when landowners sign standard easements, large-scale land acquisition and construction creates related issues which require specific legal documentation. It is essential that your lawyers are involved not only in the discussions with owners and their solicitors in relation to these types of issues but that any documentation involved is prepared by your legal team to ensure that it is correct. 8. ENSURE THAT THE LEGAL TEAM IS AWARE OF THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE PROJECT Although this applies particularly to statutory corporations and government-owned utilities, it also applies to private sector organisations. The legal team needs to be briefed on and understand the political environment of your project. In particular, it needs to know about any owners’ actions groups which have been established, what local members of parliament are being told and what governments are saying, if anything, about the project. Providing technical legal advice about a project without understanding the political environment is of little value. This applies both to the formal legal advice provided to you as well as the formal and informal dealings your legal team has with owners and their local lawyers. Your lawyers need to understand that anything they write or say to an owner or the owner’s lawyer may end up in the hands of the relevant government minister with adverse implications for your organisation. ‘Ministerials’ are not only stressful and cause public relations problems. They also take a lot of time, effort and resources to answer, thereby diverting resources from the project itself. 9. USE YOUR LEGAL TEAM AS ANOTHER SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION/INFORMATION In its meetings and field trips, your legal team may discover and be told things that your field representatives are not hearing about local issues. Because many local lawyers are involved in community associations and local government, they often know about potential problems and community concerns well before those issues become known to you. 10. USE YOUR LEGAL TEAM AS PART OF YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS EFFORT Do not keep the members of your legal team in reserve until a dispute erupts. Use them not just as advisors but also to manage legal issues throughout the life of your project. Furthermore, make it publicly known that you are doing so. This will make it clear to the local lawyers that your legal team is available and contactable and that you regard legal issues seriously. From a public relations viewpoint, there is considerable kudos in doing this. These 10 points about how to get the best from your legal team have been successfully used by energy companies in a variety of projects involving large-scale land and easement acquisitions. There’s nothing academic or theoretical about them. They actually work! *Mark Kemp is a Senior Associate with Melbourne law firm Mason Sier Turnbull. He can be contacted at mark.kemp@mst.com.au. 47 EnErgy nEws Vol 25 no. 2, June 2007
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Jun 2007 - Australian Institute of Energy

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