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Climate risk assessments and science‐based targets: A review of emerging private sector climate action tools

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  • Jayme Walenta

Abstract

With the retreat of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, the campaign to enroll corporations and other private sector actors into the climate governing arena has accelerated. The tools used by such actors in addressing climate change are similarly expanding. While carbon footprints and carbon offsets have been previously underscored as the chief climate action tools to date, climate risk assessments and science‐based targets have been proposed as new quantitative tools to mobilize corporate action against climate change. This article presents a review of these two tools, arguing for more comprehensive and sustained scholarly investigation into each. Following overviews on the early developments of each tool, related academic research is considered in an effort to point toward future research priorities. These priorities emphasize generating empirical data around each tool's origins, diffusion, and impacts (social, economic, and environmental) so that more robust academic debates might occur on the role of science‐based targets and climate risk assessments in advancing effective polycentric climate governance. This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice Policy and Governance > Private Governance of Climate Change

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  • Jayme Walenta, 2020. "Climate risk assessments and science‐based targets: A review of emerging private sector climate action tools," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), March.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:wirecc:v:11:y:2020:i:2:n:e628
    DOI: 10.1002/wcc.628
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    2. Jannik Giesekam & Jonathan Norman & Alice Garvey & Sam Betts-Davies, 2021. "Science-Based Targets: On Target?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Maida Hadziosmanovic & Shannon M. Lloyd & Anders Bjørn & Raymond L. Paquin & Nadine Mengis & H. Damon Matthews, 2022. "Using cumulative carbon budgets and corporate carbon disclosure to inform ambitious corporate emissions targets and long‐term mitigation pathways," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(5), pages 1747-1759, October.
    4. George Blumberg & Maurizio Sibilla, 2023. "A Carbon Accounting and Trading Platform for the uk Construction Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Zola Berger‐Schmitz & Douglas George & Cameron Hindal & Richard Perkins & Maria Travaille, 2023. "What explains firms' net zero adoption, strategy and response?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5583-5601, December.
    6. Maia, Rodrigo Gomes Távora & Garcia, Katia Cristina, 2023. "What they say, what they do and how they do it: An evaluation of the energy transition and GHG emissions of electricity companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    7. Maria Ghani & Usman Ghani, 2024. "Economic Policy Uncertainty and Emerging Stock Market Volatility," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(1), pages 165-181, March.

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