Catherine Warburton

Catherine has thirty years of practical experience in the field of sustainability law in South Africa. Her experience has mainly been developed across a broad spectrum of infrastructure development and mining projects. She has also assisted NGO groups and government with legal advice and has provided input into governmental regulatory development in South Africa. Catherine was involved in the environmental legal aspects of the Gautrain Project as specialist advisor from 2002 to 2016 and has advised on a number of development projects and climate and energy related projects.

Whilst working as in-house Environmental Legal Counsel for Anglo American she completed a two and a half year international sustainable development training programme in 2001 entitled LEAD i.e. Leadership for the Environment and Development. In 2012 Catherine completed a Sustainability Reporting Course, certified by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In 2013 she completed the GRI Certified Course based on the G4 reporting guidelines. Catherine completed her dissertation for her Master of Laws at Wits University in 2014 with distinction. The title of her dissertation was, “Evaluating South African EIA processes in the context of the Gautrain Project”.

Catherine has developed specific expertise in the area of climate change. She has attended UNFCCC meetings as a South African business representative and has worked on a number of greenhouse gas mitigation projects, including CDM projects, carbon capture and storage research and on greenhouse gas reporting. Catherine is part of a team that is currently developing and reviewing South Africa’s first set of Carbon Budget and Mitigation Plan Regulations. Her experience includes legal advice on Carbon Offset projects and she tracks world-wide climate change litigation and developments in the carbon market. This work also serves to compliment her air quality related work in South Africa.

She has worked on countless renewable energy projects in due diligence investigations and providing legal opinions. Catherine has presented papers and training courses on a wide range of sustainability legal issues, including on climate change. She provides strategic legal advice at the Board level and is currently advising on a number of mine closure projects and is acting in a large corporate criminal environmental prosecution, which is the first of its kind in South Africa.

From 2013 - 2023 Catherine Warburton has been listed as one of the Best Environmental Lawyers in South Africa by Best Lawyers SA. She was ranked in the Chambers & Partners Guide (Environmental) on Band One from 2016 to 2022, in Who’s Who Legal (Environmental) from 2015 to 2023 and in Who’s Who Legal (Climate Change). The Chambers 2020 Guide reported that she possesses a wealth of knowledge covering all manner of environmental advisory, compliance and contentious issues. Clients are quick to praise her as "extremely approachable while simultaneously being an expert in environmental law with vast amounts of experience" and describe her as "methodical, meticulous, experienced and efficient". Catherine served as a member of the Gauteng MEC’s External EIA Appeals Advisory Panel from 2015 to 2019.

The Business Today Legal Awards listed Catherine as one of South Africa’s Top 10 Influential Environmental lawyers in 2023.