COP28 capacity building: Africa in focus – facilitating the net transition

Nina is a specialist planning and environmental law practitioner. She has appeared in a number of leading environmental law claims, including the successful challenge to the Net Zero Strategy and a claim now before the Supreme Court concerning the question of whether the scope 3 emissions of oil and gas development are indirect effects of that development for the purpose of an environmental impact assessment. She successfully represented the UK Government before the United Nations in a dispute concerning compliance with international environmental law. She is ranked as a Tier 1 barrister in the Legal 500 and a leading junior in Chambers and Partners. She serves as Vice-Chair of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association and is a Committee Member of the Planning and Environmental Bar Association. Nina has also featured in The Planner’s Women of Influence list and the ENDS Power List of the most influential environmental professionals: “she is one of, if not the, leader in her field”. She was awarded a Global Leadership Award by the Climate Law and Governance Initiative during COP27.

I am a "Natural Scientist turned Regulatory Lawyer". Owing to my background in Environmental Sciences, my practice tends to focus on the laws that govern the exploitation of natural resources. Axiomatically, I also have a passion for sustainable development and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related matters. In light of this, I am well versed in environmental, labour, mineral and petroleum, administrative and constitutional, as well as general commercial law. In addition to advising clients on the law, I also represent them in negotiations, transactional work, judicial review proceedings, international arbitrations, and high court litigation. My clients include governments, local communities and multinational organisations. The latter include entities that are listed on the Johannesburg, London, New York, Singapore and Indian Stock Exchanges and which have operations in various Sub-Saharan African jurisdictions. I was also the lead associate in the team which represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as international legal counsel on the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ mineral law reform project. For more information, please see my profile at https://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/our-people/ernst-muller.