Master Theme for the 2024 Academy:

鈥淢oney Makes the (Overheating) World Go 鈥楻ound 鈥� Until it Doesn鈥檛.鈥�

Substantive Outline:

The United Nations鈥� Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is just one of the widely audible voices alerting us to the devastating consequences of climate change. In an environment of fraught political debates in countries around the world, the number of climate change deniers is not receding. Meanwhile, the search for the most effective policies and how to implement them without delay is only intensifying. What sets this topic apart from others, is its staggering scale. There is, arguably, nothing that is not, in one way or the other, tied to or connected with climate change.

That means, that any effort to address climate change and to develop effective instruments to either stop or slow it down is by necessity part of a larger process, which is both political and epistemological. Climate change does not merely prompt regulators, corporations, or private citizens to make concrete changes in different aspects of, for example, energy production and consumption. Instead, it requires a wholesale assessment of how we all have let the situation become so dire.

In other words, what is on trial is not only which kind of car we will drive in the future or whether we can adapt to cold showers on a more regular basis. On trial is an entire way of life, individually, collectively, and seen in a larger global context. The latter reveals dramatic asymmetries between the 鈥榙rivers鈥� of climate change and those primarily affected by it. These asymmetries, in turn, shift our attention to the historical dimensions of economic and political organization, including taking a hard look at the post-colonial inheritances and continuities of imperial appropriations and exploitations of peoples in the Global South by governments and corporations in the North.

Climate change governance is, by consequence, a matter of utmost practical urgency and, at the same time, a difficult and complex epistemological challenge.

The 2024 Summer Academy at 捆绑SM社区鈥檚 Faculty of Law brings together experts and emerging scholars in management, finance, law, environmental studies, political science, sociology, and related disciplines to address the multidimensionality of climate change as a problem of regulation and knowledge. The Academy Fellows will work with selected, international Faculty members in groups to address specific dimensions of persisting and newly emerging dead-ends and roadblocks on the way to concerted, impactful collective action.

Heading off the Academy鈥檚 work in Group I will be an exploration of the 鈥�Climate Change and Sustainability Complex鈥� as both an obvious and an in-itself intricate and multidimensional challenge for regulators, scholars, and citizens alike. At the heart of Academy Group I鈥檚 research will be the correlation between public and private actors such as governments, ministries, international organizations, as well as banks, tech companies, corporations and law firms, accounting firms, business consultancies and standard-setting organizations, with a view to their role and potential to drive and collaborate towards noticeable, real-world change. The sociological sorting and mapping of 鈥�who does what?鈥� will provide the basis for the elaboration of a more concrete assessment of how climate change policy should be institutionalized between the domestic and international levels, and what role private actors are to assume in this context (Group I 鈥� 鈥淓SG Taxonomy: Private Actors to the Rescue? Game Changers or Window Dressers?鈥�).

In pursuing the transformation to a green and inclusive economy, the intricate relations between public and private actors manifest themselves in disputes over the development and implementation of investment strategies, and in attempting to align 鈥榞reen finance鈥� with shareholder interests. These tensions are the centre of Academy Working Group II. Institutional investors, financial advisors, asset managers and banks play a key role in this interplay between market actors and governments. Such intermediaries help negotiate public aid on the one hand, and, on the other, can push corporate and directors鈥� responsibility in support of lasting change in the firms鈥� sourcing, production, and dissemination activities. In this landscape, what is the particular role of the state in leading a financial green transition? The Biden administration-led Inflation Reduction Act is an illustration of the hard choices facing a public regulator in this context, and raises far-reaching questions regarding the promises and challenges of the state stepping back in, to take a leading role in economic and financial, transformative governance. Which other specific instruments are available to states today, to direct funds towards an impactful market governance that stands a chance to stop accelerating climate change? (Group II 鈥� 鈥淭he 鈥楪reen Transition鈥�, Sustainable Finance and the Role of the State 鈥� The Public Dimension鈥�).

Group III will turn the spotlight on the question of how engagement with climate change can be advanced as a matter of transformative democratic governance and of inclusive public and professional education of economists, finance experts, management consultants, lawyers, and accountants. Concretely, this Academy Group will explore the place of 鈥渟ustainability鈥� in the context of educating the future generation in law schools, business schools, universities, colleges, and secondary schools. A key dimension of this inquiry is the evolution of educational paradigms over time. The Group will retrace the evolution of programming and curriculum design as a foundation for an in-depth inquiry on two fronts. First, into the relationship between longstanding efforts to advance gender and racial equality, diversity, and inclusion. And second, on the more recent turn to identifying, conceptualizing, and implementing robust climate change and sustainability programs, on the other. Are there lessons to be learned, and synergies that can be mobilized? With these questions in mind, where do Canadian (and other) law schools, business schools, universities, colleges, and secondary schools stand in terms of adapting their educational programs to the urgency of climate change and sustainability? How important has it become for (future) lawyers and managers to be fluent in finance, in climate change, in sustainability? (Group III 鈥� 鈥淓ducation on the Sustainability and EDI Frontier鈥�).

Furthermore, Academy Group IV will focus on the organizational challenges and opportunities which present themselves in relation to ESG 鈥� environmental-social-governance and 鈥榗orporate purpose.鈥� Which industries reflect the most vibrancy in this regard among the, for example, extractive, food, garment, and tech industries? What role can corporate law play in transforming the actual, operational governance of businesses to assume concrete responsibilities in the fight against climate change? What must change look like, in business organizational culture and across industry supply chains, to make corporations responsible societal actors, stewards and guardians for inclusivity and sustainability? (Group IV 鈥� 鈥淓SG as Organizational and Transformative Culture in Today鈥檚 Business Organizations and Supply Chains鈥�).

Academy Working Group V will study the potential of including workers鈥� interests in reforming governance in an age of Climate Change and Sustainability. Recent claims have been made for the inclusion of 鈥淓鈥� (employees) in the triad of 鈥淓SG鈥� by leading corporate law experts and high court judges. 鈥淓ESG鈥�, it is argued, would highlight the role that workers must play in the transformation currently discussed with reference to 鈥榗orporate purpose鈥� and a sustainable transformation of corporate governance. How do these recent proposals build on or complement previous efforts to foster unionization, worker-representation on boards or make companies more responsive to employee concerns around workplace safety or old age security? (Group V: 鈥溾�楨ESG鈥� 鈥� Amplifying Workers鈥� Voices in the Corporation鈥�).

The Canadian government鈥檚 reconciliation policies echo other efforts underway to strengthen the equal voice and participation of Indigenous Peoples in 鈥榞reen transition鈥� programs and sustainable finance projects. These efforts aim to respond to a widespread concern that some of the communities most impacted by climate change and unsustainable politics of 鈥榞rowth鈥� remain largely excluded from problem analysis and policy development processes. To that end, Academy Working Group VI is tasked with identifying roadblocks and obstacles in the path to a more inclusive, collaborative governance and decision-making process regarding land use, extraction rights and the shift away from fossil fuels. An inquiry into the forms of indigenous representation and co-decision will require a deeper engagement with challenges as well as opportunities arising from differences in political cultures and forms of deliberation and decision-making. (Group VI 鈥� 鈥淚ndigenous Communities and Sustainable Finance鈥�).

Academy Working Group VII will explore the practice and evolving conceptualization of 鈥渆xtractivism鈥� by focusing on the regulatory challenges that arise from the extraction of both natural, and immaterial resources, particularly data. While concrete advances towards a 鈥済reen transition鈥� are progressing too slowly in terms of effective decarbonization, the needs for precious minerals to fuel electric engines in transport and production have opened up new conflicts around natural resource depletion, land use and equitable access. This extractivism is paralleled by unprecedented technological capabilities to collect and instrumentalize data for commercial use in a context in which rights-based access to public services is being curtailed. This Academy Group鈥檚 inquiry into the persisting and evolving phenomena of extractivism is meant to render visible not only the institutional and legal infrastructure that supports the continuing reliance of global producers and commerce on finite fossil fuels and the recent shift to materials required for batteries and alternative electrification, but also the deepening and expanding digitalization of commercial, regulatory and disciplinary functions (Group VII 鈥� 鈥淓xtractivism as Practice and Critical Concept鈥�).