TRN312H1 (ES&L)

TRN312H1: Sustainability Issues in Ethics, Society, and Law

Course Description

This course examines sustainability through an energy justice lens, providing a multidisciplinary framework for understanding the ethical, socio-political, and legal dimensions of contemporary environmental challenges. As societies confront the accelerating impacts of climate change, questions of justice, equity, and responsibility have become central to sustainability debates.

The course begins by tracing the historical and theoretical development of sustainability and energy justice, exploring key concepts such as distributive, procedural, and recognition justice. Students will engage with foundational philosophical and ethical perspectives, examine the political structures that shape climate governance, and analyze legal frameworks that influence environmental decision-making at local, national, and international scales. Particular attention is given to how energy systems intersect with issues of inequality, Indigenous rights, environmental racism, and global development. We will examine how sustainability is anchored in the law, and analyze real-world implications through case studies spanning pollution, health, climate change, and food systems.

In addition to the weekly lectures, the course will have weekly tutorial discussions and insights from energy/environmental justice professionals (guest lectures). The course draws from a wide variety of materials—including book chapters, journal and newspaper articles, legal cases, reports, and policy briefs.

Shardul Tiwari (MSc, PhD) is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. His interdisciplinary research focuses on energy justice, policy, and transition innovation. For his PhD dissertation, Dr. Tiwari used socioeconomic and legal lenses to examine the development of energy storage in post-mining communities in abandoned underground mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. At the University of Toronto, Dr. Tiwari is working on the CANSTOREnergy:  research project funded through a New Frontier in Research Fund (NFRF) grant. Dr. Tiwari’s work on the project involves collaborating with community members to understand their energy challenges and objectives, and exploring how carbon conversion technologies might integrate into their envisioned future. Dr. Tiwari is exploring the use of energy justice to evaluate policies for developing carbon conversion and storage technologies. This involves a comprehensive analysis of the policy context, consideration of various interests, and the development of an in-depth understanding of Canada’s existing energy governance landscape. In addition to academic research, Dr. Tiwari has over 8 years of experience in formulating and implementing renewable energy and energy efficiency policies. He has worked with different levels of governments in Nepal and India, as well as with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).