Numerous occupations require practitioners to possess special licenses and responsibilities that hold them to higher standards, as well as demand special knowledge and skill, when undertaking their professional responsibilities.  Those practitioners working on climate change related considerations must discern between fact and fiction, and engage in difficult, realistic assessments of risk.  This course examines ethical duties, legal liability considerations, and one's professional responsibilities and aspirations in the context of climate change.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding the need to make distinctions between fact and risk, and the implications on the duties of professional competence

• Considering how ethical standards apply to numerous occupations working on climate change initiatives, including how to locate relevant provisions of professional codes

• Understanding the elements of professional negligence and malpractice, exploring actual legal cases involving professional negligence, and discussing how disclosures and contracts and defenses, such as caveat emptor and sovereign immunity, can minimize liability in various professional disciplines

• Recognizing how the mandates of ethical codes do, and do not, influence civil or criminal liability, and distinguishing between the risks of professional discipline and the risks of professional negligence

• Thinking about aspirations of professionalism, and whether and how non-mandatory documents associated with various professions should influence climate change professionals

Course Architects & Reviewers

• Thomas Bateman -- Professor, Self and University of Virginia

• Gavin Dillingham, CC-P -- Director, HARC

• Jette Findsen — Sr. Program Officer - Climate Investment Standards, American Carbon Registry

• Greg Guibert -- Senior Resilience Analyst, National Renewable Energy Lab

• Jill Lemke, CC-P -- Manager, Strategic Planning & Special Projects, MDOT Port Administration

• Ellen Mecray -- Regional Climate Services Director- Eastern Region, NOAA

• Richard Miller -- Director, Office of Sustainability, Institute of the Environment, University of Connecticut

• Josh Silverman -- Director of Environmental Protection and ES&H Reporting, US DOE

• Emily Soontornsaratool, CC-P -- Chief, Data Management & Sustainability Initiatives, Office of Energy & Sustainability, Maryland Department of General Services

• Nancy Sutley -- Senior Assistant General Manager of External and Regulatory Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer, LA Department of Water and Power

• Kristen Taddonio, CC-P -- Sr. Climate & Energy Advisor, IGSD

• Susanne Torriente -- Global Technology Leader, City Resilience, Jacobs

Sample Screen Shots from the Governance-103 Online Course (2023)