TY - JOUR

T1 - Corporate climate futures in the making

T2 - Why we need research on the politics of Science-Based Targets

AU - Tilsted, Joachim Peter

AU - Palm, Ellen

AU - Bjørn, Anders

AU - Lund, Jens Friis

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - In this Perspective article, we call for more scholarly attention to the politics of the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Specifically, we argue for a need to examine the emission pathways and decarbonised futures that are expressed and promoted through Science-Based Targets and what futures they render more likely in the pursuit of low-carbon transitions. We highlight how the SBTi's guidance material is characterized by a narrow and linear view of science (as input) as well as a similarly narrow portrayal of decarbonised futures (as outcome), despite the negotiated character of target-setting and the open-endedness of transitions. The SBTi thus currently tends towards obscuring the politics embedded within it and promoting an incumbent-driven transition, thereby legitimizing a transition shaped by some of the world's largest corporations and, in this sense, shielding them from democratic control. This argument illustrates the need for more scholarly engagement with the politics of knowledge that informs the SBTi and its governance framework. On a broader note, it highlights the need for continued critical engagement with corporate climate governance as it develops and takes on more ambitious forms.

AB - In this Perspective article, we call for more scholarly attention to the politics of the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Specifically, we argue for a need to examine the emission pathways and decarbonised futures that are expressed and promoted through Science-Based Targets and what futures they render more likely in the pursuit of low-carbon transitions. We highlight how the SBTi's guidance material is characterized by a narrow and linear view of science (as input) as well as a similarly narrow portrayal of decarbonised futures (as outcome), despite the negotiated character of target-setting and the open-endedness of transitions. The SBTi thus currently tends towards obscuring the politics embedded within it and promoting an incumbent-driven transition, thereby legitimizing a transition shaped by some of the world's largest corporations and, in this sense, shielding them from democratic control. This argument illustrates the need for more scholarly engagement with the politics of knowledge that informs the SBTi and its governance framework. On a broader note, it highlights the need for continued critical engagement with corporate climate governance as it develops and takes on more ambitious forms.

KW - Corporate climate governance

KW - Emission pathways

KW - Incumbency

KW - Paris agreement

KW - Science-based targets

U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2023.103229

DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2023.103229

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85169883253

VL - 103

JO - Energy Research & Social Science

JF - Energy Research & Social Science

SN - 2214-6296

M1 - 103229

ER -