Resources

January 2019 | Janis Sarra, Cynthia Williams | Reports In their report to the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance in Canada, Dr Janis Sarra and Prof Cynthia Williams address two critically important issues: the fiduciary obligation of corporate and pension fiduciaries to consider climate and broader environmental, social and governance issues, and government's responsibilities to…

14 November 2018 | Janis Sarra, Cynthia Williams | Presentation In this presentation, Dr Janis Sarra, Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law University of British Columbia, outlined the fiduciary obligations of corporate directors and pension fiduciaries as they relate to climate change. Professor Cynthia A. Williams, Osler Chair in Business Law, Osgoode Hall Law…

November 2018 | Sarah Barker To assist boards and their committees navigate the step-change in corporate governance and disclosure expectations regarding the impacts of climate change on their business, the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative has collaborated with leading governance advisors to develop The Climate Risk Reporting Journey: A Corporate Governance Primer. The primer serves…

The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) has published two legal research papers on Canadian fiduciary duties and disclosure obligations in the climate change context. In Obligations in Business and Investment: Implications of Climate Change, legal analysis by Dr Janis Sarra, Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law University of British Columbia, shows that directors, officers…

17th April 2018 | Sarah Barker, Alice Garton, Christine Reddell, Janis Sarra, Alexia Staker, Cynthia Williams | Reports The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) is examining the legal basis for directors and trustees to take account of physical climate change risk and societal responses to climate change, under prevailing statutory and common (judge-made) laws.…

25 September 2017 | Alexia Staker, Alice Garton, Sarah Barker | Briefing Paper In this briefing from the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), experts refute misplaced fears in industry about the legal risks of climate disclosure. New analysis confirms that saying nothing at all about climate issues in corporate reporting puts directors at far…

29-30 August 2016 | University of Melbourne The International Legal Symposium, "Climate Change Risk and Corporate Governance: Directors’ Duties and Liability Exposures in a post-Paris World," held at the University of Melbourne, was convened by the EU Centre for Shared Complex Challenges, University of Melbourne, and the Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative (CCLI). Download symposium…

8 June 2016 | Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford As business steels itself to deal with seismic changes in the world’s climate, what is legally expected of directors is becoming more stringent. The Paris talks in December confirmed what we already knew – that more serious action is required from the corporate world in…