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Robert Schertzer

Robert Schertzer

Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto (UTSC), researching federalism, nationalism, and judicial politics.

Sep 14, 2026

17:48
So I wanted to ask, how does nationalist polarization interact with climate justice debates? And does nationalist framing risk narrowing solidarity of the national community at the expense of global responsibility?
18:03
Yeah, so this is great.
18:04
I think this is also kind of gets to the crux of what we're trying to focus on in our work and their implications, right? So I think the tension here is really between, as you say, the global nature of the policy problem, right? And then the national lens through which we're finding most people seem to talk and understand it.
18:20
I, you know, the very first thing I say often, I said it in the talk today, climate change is the definition of a transnational problem.
18:27
It raises questions about obligations that cut across borders, across generations, across vastly unique societies, right? So questions of justice, right, in this sense, inherently have an international or transnational intergenerational issue.
18:44
But what's happening, I think, is these questions of justice are actually getting reframed by political actors to be about questions of national responsibility.
18:52
So what do we owe our citizens? National interest and national priority.
20:29
If you can maybe elaborate on what do you think are the implications of your findings for climate law and governance and what should policymakers take from your research? What would you recommend to political leaders who wants to build support for climate policy? And maybe also what should researchers working on climate governance and climate law pay more attention to in the coming years?

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