Last month’s Budget introduced a range of measures to encourage investment in energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon capture. These measures stemmed from a desire to aid recovery from the recession with the creation of thousands of ‘green’ jobs.

This notion of a win-win solution, in which correct environmental behaviour goes hand in hand with economic well-being, is usually described by academics as ‘ecological modernisation’. It is a subject of interest to academics because of the likely shift to a low-carbon economy, in which the curbing of carbon emissions takes on greater economic importance than the generation of production fuelled by oil or other fossil fuels. The impact on business is a matter of keen speculation.

April also saw practising and academic lawyers gathered at a meeting of two professional organisations: the UK Environmental Law Association, of which many practising lawyers are members, and the Society of Legal Scholars. The issue addressed by the meeting, hosted by Landmark Chambers in London, was: What do Environmental Lawyers Do? One might think that environmental lawyers know well enough how they spend their practising lives, but a meeting with their academic counterparts perhaps suggests a growing interest in lawyers delivering sustainable development.

A number of issues are crying out for legal resolution. In areas such as transport, energy, utilities and housing huge reinvestment is required, but choices are likely to be controversial. Alternative energy sources, ranging from wind farms to nuclear power stations, are likely to be heavily contested. As lawyers, we need to facilitate energy infrastructure, while acknowledging real issues of environmental justice.

Because of climate change, we face environmental justice issues everywhere. Even decisions not to expend resources to combat climate change may be open to attack. In the US, the Supreme Court, in Massachusetts v US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 549 U.S. 497 (2007), has ruled that the EPA must consider again its decision not to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new cars under the Clean Air Act.

As winners and losers emerge from the impact of climate change, litigation is likely to follow. It is to be hoped, though, that environmental lawyers can be proactive in helping curtail greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) and lessening the harm of climate change (adaptation).

Some of this may be simply done as everyday property transactions begin to incorporate due diligence on issues such as energy efficiency or public transport access. In a low-carbon economy, a monetary value will be attached to carbon reduction, so the capacity of a building or a factory to meet such goals will become a crucial consideration for purchasing clients.

We are already witnessing environmental law moving away from traditional command and control structures in which we license polluting activity but punish breach of licence conditions. There are new commandments, such as product composition requirements in cars or electrical goods to aid reuse, recovery and recycling of materials. Supply chains become supply loops as the manufacturer takes back materials at the end of life. This type of responsibility for manufacturers and producers needs to be reflected in the contracts we enter into. This provides a good example of the move from strict environmental regulation to systems of governance in which private sector clients are responsible for sustainability.

Does this mean that we will all be environmental lawyers, in some way, soon? Maybe, though perhaps it means the opposite. In a low-carbon economy, perhaps the task of delivering sustainable development falls on us all and there is no convenient box labelled ‘environmental law’. Perhaps Gordon Brown’s vision of a green recovery implies that environmental law must move out of its niche and become a mainstream legal practice.

Robert Lee is Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School and a member of the academic panel at Landmark Chambers’ Centre for Environmental Law