Walkers Ireland LLP are proud to have been shortlisted in the Sustainable Finance category for the Financial Times Europe Innovative Lawyers Awards 2021 for our work with Tramontana Asset Management ("Tramontana") on their Carbon ABS Programme.

The FT awards acknowledge the most innovative lawyers and legal work across Europe. The awards provide an opportunity to celebrate the prioritisation of sustainability and how the legal sector can bring good to business and society, particularly in these challenging times. The 2021 awards include 109 shortlisted entries across 14 categories submitted by 62 law firms operating in Europe. The 2021 law firm rankings will be announced at a Financial Times event on 14 October 2021.

Walkers worked alongside Linklaters LLP and Tramontana on the establishment of their innovative Carbon ABS Programme which repackages Carbon allowances to meet the growing investor demand for sustainable investment opportunities and ESG investments. Tramontana has experienced very strong investor demand for the product, with in excess of 1.5 billion Euros of Carbon ABS issued across multiple series in 2020 alone.

Commenting on the shortlisting, Walkers Partner Matt Hedigan, said: "This shortlisting demonstrates our commitment as a firm to structuring complex and sustainable cross border financing solutions. Tramontana's platform was among the first to successfully use an Irish Section 110 company to repackage carbon offsets. This structure, and the recognition from the Financial Times, strengthens Ireland's position as a green finance hub and leading location for structured finance transactions. Congratulations to Paul Jackman, Bharath Manium and the Tramontana team. This is well deserved recognition for their hard work as energy transition industry leaders in bringing this cutting edge product to market"

Tramontana Managing Director, Paul Jackman added: "We are delighted that one of our sustainable finance solutions has been recognised by the Financial Times. Tramontana continues to work on specialised financing solutions designed to accelerate Energy Transition and to combat Climate Change." Managing Director, Bharath Manium, also said: "It is a fantastic achievement to be recognised through this shortlisting for our efforts in advancing the Energy Transition agenda. We believe carbon pricing will be the cornerstone of the journey to net zero and we are immensely proud to have successfully established a platform to help scale and advance the carbon asset class."

Linklaters LLP Partner Vinay Samani also added, "It was a pleasure to work alongside Tramontana and Walkers to develop this innovative solution which underscores the important role finance plays in the path to net-zero. It was particularly pleasing to be able to leverage our strength in structured finance to help the Tramontana team deliver carbon offset exposure to a new investor base. We look forward to working with the Tramontana and Walkers teams on future sustainable finance initiatives."

The Walkers team was led by Finance Partner Matt Hedigan, together with Head of Tax Jonathan Sheehan, Of Counsel Tax Eimear Burbridge, Regulatory Partner Niall Esler and Finance Associate Andrea Gleasure as well as Fiona de Lacy Managing Director and Brendan McCauley Vice President at Walkers Professional Services.

To read more about the Financial Times Europe Innovative Lawyers Awards and to view the full 2021 shortlist, please click here: https://lawyerseurope.live.ft.com/