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Australian firm Clayton Utz has advised on the world's largest trade in carbon credits. The deal, completed in Sydney in early June, was struck between Japan's Cosmo Oil and Australian Plantation Timber, and involves the trade of one million CO2 tonnes over an 11-year term. The trading of carbon credits is not a well-established field. The Kyoto Protocol would have provided a framework for such trades but so far no developed nations have ratified the agreement and the withdrawal of US support is likely to bring about its complete collapse.

Companies around the world have cut back on consolidation this year, according to a survey by international accountancy firm KPMG. In what is a worrying report for international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyers, the accountancy firm's corporate finance group reported that the number of deals in the first half of 2001 were down 32% on the same period in 2000 marking a 54% drop in activity.

The European Securitization Forum (ESF) has outlined the need for regulatory harmonization to bring greater efficiency to the market. Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Council of Securities Associations, Tamara Adler, chair of the ESF, highlighted the goals of the group's proposed Framework for European Securitization.

On May 11 2001, the board of directors Colombian Central Bank (Banco de la República) issued External Resolution No. 2 of 2001 reforming articles 48, 49, 50 and 51 of External Resolution No. 8 of 2000, issued by the same entity, which contains the Foreign Exchange Regime. The articles that were reformed comprise the special foreign exchange regime applicable to the oil, gas & mining sectors in Colombia. The special regime allows certain entities which participate in the oil, gas and mining sector in Colombia not to repatriate to the Colombian foreign exchange market the revenues they receive from sales made by them in foreign currencies.

White & Case and Latham & Watkins have advised on the $2.2 billion financing of the two largest independent power projects in the US. Arthur Scavone, co-head of White & Case's worldwide energy, infrastructure and project finance practice, closed the $2.2 billion Teco/Panda power deal in June, following the firm's work for the joint venture of Panda Energy International and Teco Energy.

"It's one thing to put a nice pretty code of standards together and put it on the shelf. I'm more interested in whether it's being applied in the market"

The Australian attorney general is on a mission to force greater liberalization of Singapore's legal market. Singapore's reform efforts so far, says Daryl Williams, have favoured the UK and US firms far more than the Australians. In the context of a free trade deal between Australia and Singapore, this hardly seems fair. Williams took his case to the Singaporeans at the beginning of June with a legal services mission to the city state, comprising representatives of the International Legal Services Advisory Council, the Law Council of Australia, law firms, law schools and arbitration and mediation specialists.

Norton Rose is preparing to increase its Chinese practice in 2002. The UK firm has just applied to the Chinese ministry of justice for a licence to practice in Beijing and also plans to return to Hong Kong next year, after its three-year exile comes to an end.

Ofta wants tighter control of telecoms M&A in Hong Kong. In June, the Hong Kong government closed the consultation period on proposals to tighten the regulatory regime for M&A in the telecoms industry. Katie Elias of Simmons & Simmons, Hong Kong, reviews the proposals

The Forum of European Securitization Commissions (FESCO) has called for common European standards for alternative trading systems (ATSs). At present alternative systems are treated as full exchanges in some member states but not in others, which can lead to an inadequate supply of information to investors, the regulators have said.