Legitimising voluntary and market-based climate action: Corporate narratives, nature-based offsetting and the greening of capitalism

Research output: Book/ReportPh.D. thesis

Abstract

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the notion that the world needs to reach a balance between carbon emissions and removals has gained widespread recognition. Not the least among private corporations have we, in recent years, seen a surge of voluntary commitments to reach so-called net-zero emissions. While some welcome the push to ramp up commitments to climate change mitigation, critiques have also proliferated as corporations have been accused of banking on the ecological crises to ‘green’ their image selling seemingly sustainable products and services, while maintaining unsustainable business practices.

In this thesis, I explore narratives and logics which underpin and legitimise voluntary and market-based climate governance. Specifically, I investigate how the voluntary carbon market and nature-based carbon removal are (re)legitimised as corporate strategies to compensate for emissions considered unavoidable. Thus, the overarching research question is:

How do corporate, private actors legitimise voluntary and market-based governance in face of the climate crisis and how is nature enrolled as a method for carbon dioxide removal to reach corporate net zero?

I address this question through three papers, which investigate different aspects of voluntary, market-based climate governance and the narratives used to sustain its legitimacy. First, Paper I explores an early case of corporate net-zero claims by asking how a Swedish fast-food chain communicates about their use of nature-based carbon offsetting to serve ‘climate-positive burgers’. We show how the company justifies its continued growth in emissions by framing offsets as a necessary complement to emission reductions, while shifting the responsibility for climate action onto consumers and smallholders in the global South.

Second, Paper II examines how large companies in the food and technology sectors frame the problem of their climate impacts and their mitigation actions. We show how corporations construct narratives which emphasise the societal necessity of their products and services, while relying on efficiency, substitution and, ultimately carbon dioxide removal, to address their emissions – which many of them expect will grow in absolute terms.

Finally, in Paper III, I explore how the digitalisation of the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) process of nature-based offset projects are being leveraged to relegitimise the voluntary carbon market in response to growing scrutiny of its integrity. Here, I show that while digital MRV addresses reputational risks to buyers and issues of supply constraints, it does not fundamentally transform approaches to nature protection and restoration.

Bringing these findings together in the introductory chapter, the thesis contributes to literatures which explore how capitalism survives by evolving into a seemingly ‘greener’ version of itself, thus maintaining its primacy despite continued criticisms of the crises it creates. Specifically, I outline how the greening of capitalism is underpinned by a support structure of moral reasonings and epistemic authority. Thus, I show how voluntary and market-based corporate climate action relies on narratives of the social necessity of certain production and consumption patterns as well as the scientific inevitability of carbon dioxide removal to reach net zero. This in turn legitimises the reliance on nature-based offsetting, which, through the epistemic authority of carbon accounting logics, is enrolled as credible corporate responses to climate change.

However, the legitimacy of these strategies remains contested, requiring continuous renewal through new metrics and narratives which legitimise corporate climate actions. While these efforts do appear to impose new restrictions on what is deemed legitimate corporate climate action, they ultimately reinforce capitalist dynamics. Thus, the thesis concludes by highlighting the paradox of voluntary and market-based climate action and green capitalism more generally: everybody agrees that it fails to deliver what it promises, yet nobody seem able to propose a plausible and convincing alternative.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherDepartment of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
Number of pages130
Publication statusPublished - 2025

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