TY - JOUR
T1 - On Effectiveness and Legitimacy of ‘Shaming’ as a Strategy for Combatting Climate Change
AU - Taebi, Behnam
AU - Safari, Azar
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - While states have agreed to substantial reduction of emissions in the Paris Agreement, the success of the Agreement strongly depends on the cooperation of large Multinational Corporations. Short of legal obligations, we discuss the effectiveness and moral legitimacy of voluntary approaches based on naming and shaming. We argue that effectiveness and legitimacy are closely tied together; as voluntary approaches are the only alternative to legally imposed duties, they are most morally defensible particularly if they would be the most effective in reducing the harmful greenhouse gases. Shaming could be made effective if states could prompt more corporations to accept voluntary cuts with high gains—such as public acknowledgements—and high losses, such as reporting on noncompliance and public exposure (naming), along with some kind of condemnation (shaming). An important challenge of such voluntary approaches is how to ensure compliance with the agreed upon commitments, while avoiding greenwashing or selective disclosure. Certain institutional arrangements are inevitable, including an independent measurement, monitoring and verification mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the potentials and ethical pitfalls of shaming as a strategy when corporations have a direct relationship with consumers, but also when they are in a relationship with governments and other corporations.
AB - While states have agreed to substantial reduction of emissions in the Paris Agreement, the success of the Agreement strongly depends on the cooperation of large Multinational Corporations. Short of legal obligations, we discuss the effectiveness and moral legitimacy of voluntary approaches based on naming and shaming. We argue that effectiveness and legitimacy are closely tied together; as voluntary approaches are the only alternative to legally imposed duties, they are most morally defensible particularly if they would be the most effective in reducing the harmful greenhouse gases. Shaming could be made effective if states could prompt more corporations to accept voluntary cuts with high gains—such as public acknowledgements—and high losses, such as reporting on noncompliance and public exposure (naming), along with some kind of condemnation (shaming). An important challenge of such voluntary approaches is how to ensure compliance with the agreed upon commitments, while avoiding greenwashing or selective disclosure. Certain institutional arrangements are inevitable, including an independent measurement, monitoring and verification mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the potentials and ethical pitfalls of shaming as a strategy when corporations have a direct relationship with consumers, but also when they are in a relationship with governments and other corporations.
KW - Climate change
KW - Corporate social responsibility
KW - Environmental management
KW - INDC
KW - Multinational corporations
KW - Naming and shaming
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017414991&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:08d2f58d-fe88-4a7e-acb9-d19eeb2b8fa4
U2 - 10.1007/s11948-017-9909-z
DO - 10.1007/s11948-017-9909-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85017414991
SN - 1353-3452
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - Science and Engineering Ethics
JF - Science and Engineering Ethics
ER -