Sustainability Regulation Observatory
The Sustainability Regulation Observatory (SRO) generates research and analysis for policy makers and practitioners on how sustainability regulation can be designed and reformed in ways that are economically sound, socially just, and politically feasible and durable, drawing on world-leading expertise across LSE.
About the SRO
Scientific and technological solutions that can ensure sustainability are not being deployed at the necessary speed and scale, further hampered by a green backlash and geopolitical rifts among the great powers. Designing and getting political agreement on regulation that addresses social and environment needs has become one of the defining challenges of the sustainability transition.
The SRO draws upon expertise across the LSE Law School, the Grantham Research Institute, the Department of International Relations and other departments and is dedicated to understanding how sustainability regulation works, where it falls short, and how it can be improved. It is directed by Dr Ashfaq Khalfan and aims to influence how sustainability regulation is designed, reformed and implemented across jurisdictions and globally.
What we do
Research and analysis
The SRO produces policy briefs, working papers, and blog posts that translate LSE's academic expertise into practical, policy-relevant outputs. Its research examines experiences of sustainability regulation worldwide: how regulation is designed and implemented and what political and legal dynamics determine whether it succeeds or fails. The SRO maintains a cross-LSE database of research expertise, enabling it to draw on the full range of the university's capabilities in law, economics, political science, international relations, and beyond.
Convening
The SRO brings together researchers, policymakers and practitioners to examine the most contested and important questions in sustainability governance. Through expert roundtables and public events, it creates the conditions for researchers to connect directly with the people designing, reforming, and implementing regulation to strengthen each of these communities’ work.
Current Focus Areas
The SRO is currently examining the following issues:
Corporate sustainability due diligence: examining what obligations requiring companies to minimise environmental and social harms can achieve, and where they fall short, in comparison to other regulatory instruments used to shift corporate behaviour. This work has taken on particular urgency in the context of regulatory backlash to it in Europe, even as such regulation is expanding in other regions such as Southeast Asia.
Permanent taxation of fossil fuel companies: analysing the role that higher permanent taxes on fossil fuel companies could play as a tool of regulation to advance a sustainability transition in energy markets.
The green backlash: examining the political, economic, cultural, and geopolitical dimensions of resistance to sustainability regulation and how regulation and governance can be designed to be more durable and resilient in the face of it.
New forms of international cooperation: investigating how great-power rivalry is reshaping global sustainability institutions and what novel forms of cooperation might fill the gaps.
Banks and financed emissions: supporting the the Sustainability Law and Policy Clinic in distilling the findings of its research on what legal and methodological approaches can be utilised by litigants to attribute financed emissions to banks.
Ocean laws of the world: exploring partnerships with the Grantham Research Institute and Climate Policy Radar to expand the existing climate laws of the world database into ocean governance and other areas that are central to sustainability and environmental protection.
Our Team
The SRO is made up of its director, Dr Ashfaq Khalfan, Chloé Ferguson Smith (Policy Officer) and Ana-Fati Hurezeanu (Research Associate) as well as the Sustainable Governance theme leads who oversee the SRO and provide substantial research contributions: Prof Veerle Heyvaert (Professor at LSE Law School), Robert Falkner (Professor of International Relations and Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA) and Dr Joana Setzer (Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment). Each project is supported by experts from across the LSE working on sustainable governance.
Connect with Us
The SRO publishes policy briefs, blogs, and working papers, and convenes expert discussions bringing together researchers, policy makers and practitioners working on sustainability governance. To stay up to date with our work, sign up to our mailing list.
Get in touch directly with the Director of the SRO to discuss partnerships, research collaborations, policy engagement, or general enquiries.