69热视频

Speaker

Professor Oren Perez (Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University), an O鈥橞rien Fellow in Residence here at 69热视频 during the month of April.

Abstract

"The idea of 鈥済reen economy,鈥� which was placed on the global agenda by the Rio+20 conference, claims to serve as a bridge between the demands of global capitalism and the vision of sustainability. In the corporate social responsibility literature, writers such as Michael Porter and Mark Kramer have made a similar claim, arguing that there is a positive correlation between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance. I argue that the claim underlying the green economy thesis, whereby the goals of (classical) economic growth and sustainable development can be achieved concurrently, is highly problematic. First, the claim disregards the extent to which the web of ideas and institutional structures that underpin the global capitalist system constrains the capacity of agents to commit themselves to sustainable policies. Second, it understates the difficult tradeoffs involved in implementing green growth policies.聽 This critique ties in with the debate over the capacity of corporate social responsibility instruments to promote sustainable development. I examine this general critique in the context the two leading global sustainability indexes: the FTSE4Good Index Series and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). Sustainability indexes epitomize the green economy thesis because they claim to positively affect the sustainability profile of firms despite the fact that (or precisely because) they are situated at the heart of modern capitalism: the stock exchange. I demonstrate how the paradox at the heart of the green economy thesis manifests in sustainable indexes. In particular, I highlight the tension between the indexes鈥� dual role as financial products (tracking the firms鈥� share values) and as CSR instruments. I also show that both indexes suffer from a deep democratic deficit, which is inconsistent with their public function. I conclude with policy recommendations that could bring the indexes closer to a more meaningful understanding of the concept of green economy."

Dr. Oren Perez is a faculty member at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and specializes in environmental law and policy, international trade and globalization, torts, legal theory and e-democracy.聽 He has received several research stipends, including grants from Ontario鈥檚 Ministry of the Environment, the Israeli Science Foundation and the Environmental Health Fund. Among his recent publications are 鈥淗ow Law Changes the Environmental Mind: An Experimental Study of the Effect of Legal Norms on Moral Perceptions and Civic Enforcement鈥� in the Journal of Law & Society and 鈥淧recautionary Governance and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge: A Democratic Framework for Regulating Nano-Technology鈥� in the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy. Perez earned his LL.B. magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University and his LL.M. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science.