How our clauses work

Introduction

Our clauses make it easy for legal and business professionals to embed climate ambition into everyday contracts. They are:

• Clear and practical – written to be straightforward to use.
• Legally sound – drafted to meet professional standards.
• Flexible – ready to use as written, or more commonly, as a starting point you can adapt to your specific needs.

By integrating these clauses into standard legal practice, you can advance your sustainability goals with confidence.

What our clauses cover

Each clause targets real-world opportunities to reduce emissions, allocate responsibility, and drive better climate outcomes. They cover a number of practice areas and sectors such as:

• M&A and Capital Markets (for example,. ESG due diligence questionnaires)
• Supply Chains and Procurement
• Real Estate and Construction
• Employment and Governance
• Finance and Investment
• Energy and Infrastructure

Our clauses are also available in four languages (English, German, Spanish, Japanese) and cover nine jurisdictions: from England and Wales to Germany, through to New Zealand and Japan. 

This global scope demonstrates how climate solutions in contracts and legal documents can adapt across sectors, transactions and legal systems.

Clause structure explained

Clause title: An easy reference explaining the intention of the clause.

Child’s name: Each clause is dedicated to the child chosen by the people who wrote it. It symbolises the next generation,  the people most affected by climate change, and humanises our legal content.

Updated date: The most recent date this clause was revised. This helps you know if you’re working with a version that reflects legal, market, or climate science developments.

Maintenance label: This indicates whether the clause is actively maintained by our legal content team. A “Maintained” label means it’s monitored and updated in response to legal, scientific or market changes. A “Not maintained” label means the clause is still available but may not reflect the latest developments. Read more about our quality assurance process.

Published date: The original date the clause was first made public. This gives you context about how long the clause has been available.

Jurisdiction: Specifies the legal jurisdiction(s) for which the clause was originally drafted or is most relevant. Many of our clauses are drafted for England and Wales law but can often be adapted for other legal systems.

Practice area: Highlights the area of law the clause relates to (such as corporate, real estate, procurement, or finance), making it easier to find content relevant to your specialism. While a clause may be tagged to a particular practice area, many can be adapted for use across other areas of law.

Recitals: Introductory statements that provide background and context for the clause. These help explain the purpose of the clause within a contract and signal intent to the parties and, if needed, to a court.

Definitions: Key terms used in the clause are defined to ensure clarity and consistency. These definitions often align with our climate-aligned glossary and help reduce ambiguity in legal drafting.

Updates: This section provides a record of what has changed in the clause over time — for example, new legal references, improvements to wording, or clarifications. This supports transparency and version control.

Keeping clauses up to date

Clauses with a “maintained” label are updated to reflect legal developments, market practice and climate science. Notes on what’s been changed can be found in the “updates” section.

You can subscribe for updates to each clause, where you receive an email notifying you of any changes made.

If a clause has been superseded, we’ll clearly link to the most recent version — so you’re always using the best available wording. 

Read more about our quality assurance process.

Who writes the clauses

Our clauses are originally drafted and reviewed by legal and industry professionals from across sectors, all contributing their expertise on a pro bono basis. Maintenance is performed by our pro bono network of leading law firms and climate science professionals in conjunction with our in-house sector specialist and legal content teams.