67
particular ways of seeing, stabilising them in the public imaginary. In the
worst-case scenario, targets are stabilising the idea that our decisionmakers are tackling the climate challenge in an ambitious way, while actually, very little gets done.
However, what if we put aside the worst-case scenario for a moment,
and consider the flip side of the coin? Is it possible that targets, even seemingly overly ambitious ones, may have real and substantive effects that
contribute to a sustainable transition? Could there be mechanisms through
which targets—even unrealistic ones—influence, push or nudge urban
politics and processes of change? This is not to cast aside the critical perspectives outlined above, but to suggest that analogous mechanisms of
legitimation may also work in the opposite direction.
6.3 metrIcs that can leGItImate
the sustaInabIlIty transItIon
My starting point for thinking about ways targets may legitimate transitions is to consider the carrying power of numbers (or “metrics”). It is
widely recognised that quantifying a phenomenon impregnates it with a
particular type of force, transforming it from the particular and provincial
into the language of the universal. Foucault, for instance, showed how
scientific knowledge—where metrics play a central role—is the foundation
for the birth of the modern state (Foucault 1991). Metrics is what we use
to make the unknown knowable, and thereby, governable. Foucault’s work
showed how scientific knowledge advanced our ability to govern society
and its individuals. Now, we are progressively using scientific knowledge
to govern nature as well. As Jasanoff (2010) puts it, “Increasingly, however, the politics of nature occurs under the rubric of ‘environment’—a
domain of ideas and entities accessible only with the aid of science and
technology.”
In this sense, it is quite conceivable that climate targets take on a similar
type of carrying power as other metrics have done in our governance of
nature. Climate change is knowable and measurable in precise ways,
through global aggregate temperatures traced far back in time, parts per
million of CO 2 in the atmosphere, and carbon budgets, among many others. Measures to deal with climate change are also knowable and measurable in detailed ways, through percentage of rise in renewable energy
uptake, energy efficiency measures, numbers of electric vehicles sold and
6 DO CLIMATE TARGETS MATTER? THE ACCOUNTABILITY…
particular ways of seeing, stabilising them in the public imaginary. In the
worst-case scenario, targets are stabilising the idea that our decisionmakers are tackling the climate challenge in an ambitious way, while actually, very little gets done.
However, what if we put aside the worst-case scenario for a moment,
and consider the flip side of the coin? Is it possible that targets, even seemingly overly ambitious ones, may have real and substantive effects that
contribute to a sustainable transition? Could there be mechanisms through
which targets—even unrealistic ones—influence, push or nudge urban
politics and processes of change? This is not to cast aside the critical perspectives outlined above, but to suggest that analogous mechanisms of
legitimation may also work in the opposite direction.
6.3 metrIcs that can leGItImate
the sustaInabIlIty transItIon
My starting point for thinking about ways targets may legitimate transitions is to consider the carrying power of numbers (or “metrics”). It is
widely recognised that quantifying a phenomenon impregnates it with a
particular type of force, transforming it from the particular and provincial
into the language of the universal. Foucault, for instance, showed how
scientific knowledge—where metrics play a central role—is the foundation
for the birth of the modern state (Foucault 1991). Metrics is what we use
to make the unknown knowable, and thereby, governable. Foucault’s work
showed how scientific knowledge advanced our ability to govern society
and its individuals. Now, we are progressively using scientific knowledge
to govern nature as well. As Jasanoff (2010) puts it, “Increasingly, however, the politics of nature occurs under the rubric of ‘environment’—a
domain of ideas and entities accessible only with the aid of science and
technology.”
In this sense, it is quite conceivable that climate targets take on a similar
type of carrying power as other metrics have done in our governance of
nature. Climate change is knowable and measurable in precise ways,
through global aggregate temperatures traced far back in time, parts per
million of CO 2 in the atmosphere, and carbon budgets, among many others. Measures to deal with climate change are also knowable and measurable in detailed ways, through percentage of rise in renewable energy
uptake, energy efficiency measures, numbers of electric vehicles sold and
6 DO CLIMATE TARGETS MATTER? THE ACCOUNTABILITY…