A wide range of lawyers, environmental regulators, and governance experts are among the speakers lined up for the Law Society Diploma Centre’s 2024 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on environmental, social and governance (ESG).

The course, which runs for a five-week period, starts on Tuesday 11 June.

MOOCs are free online courses open to everyone as part of the Law Society’s public legal-education initiative.

While the course is delivered over five weeks, the content will be available to view on demand until the end of July.

The course will remain open for registration and participation until 31 July 2024.

Overview

Ossian Smyth (Green Party Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement, e-Government and the circular economy) will deliver a welcome address on the opening day, which provides an overview of ESG.

Aonghus Kelly (Muine Dubh Teoranta) will speak about the internationalisation of ESG, while Nessa Joyce (William Fry) will examine the current legal landscape.

Weeks two and three are devoted to environmental issues, with speakers including Brian MacSharry from the Denmark-based European Environment Agency on data collection, Deirdre Moran (Chartered Accountants Ireland) on the sustainable-reporting landscape, and Cliona Kimber SC on climate litigation.

Week four focuses on the social and governance aspects of ESG, with Julie Hutton from the Irish Centre for Diversity among the expert speakers.

CPD points

Course participants are not required to go online at the time the videos are released, as they will remain available for the duration of the course, but you are encouraged to view them as soon as possible so that you can take part in the discussion forums.

The final session, on 9 July, will include a live panel discussion over Zoom (6pm).

There are seven CPD points available for completing this MOOC.