Waiting for a deus ex machina: ‘Sustainable extractives’ in a 2°C world

Dinah Rajak

doi:10.1177/0308275x20959419

Abstract

In recent years the oil industry has shifted from climate change denialism to advocacy of the Paris Agreement, championing sustainability in an apparent assertion (rather than rejection) of corporate responsibility. Meanwhile growth forecasts continue unabated to finance the industry’s enthusiasm for upstream ventures in uncharted territories. How do extractive companies, and those who work in them, square this contradiction? Fieldwork among oil company executives points to a new wave of techno-optimism: a deus ex machina that will descend from the labs of corporate research and development (R&D) labs to reconcile these irreconcilable imperatives. Rather than denial, the projection of win-win synergies between growth and sustainability involves a suspension of disbelief; an instrumental faith in the miraculous power of technology that tenders salvation without forsaking fossil fuels, or restructuring markets.

Highlights

More than a decade ago when I began tracing the discourse and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in extractive companies, climate change was a footnote at the end of a ‘best practice’ report, or a marginal side panel at Critique of Anthropology 40(4)a corporate convention
More than a decade ago when I began tracing the discourse and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in extractive companies, climate change was a footnote at the end of a ‘best practice’ report, or a marginal side panel at Corresponding author: Dinah Rajak, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SJ, UK
The relationship between individual ethics and corporate ethics is instrumentalized as part of a broader division of labour at work within extractive multinationals that enables the company’s ‘ethical’ work to be hived off from its ‘profitable’ work. Through this compartmentalization wilful blindness to climate change is hardwired into the organizational structure, becoming the companion to professions of mainstreaming corporate sustainability that we have come to expect from leading oil companies

Summary

Introduction

More than a decade ago when I began tracing the discourse and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in extractive companies, climate change was a footnote at the end of a ‘best practice’ report, or a marginal side panel at Critique of Anthropology 40(4)a corporate convention. Keywords Climate change, corporate social responsibility (CSR), oil, shareholders, sustainability

Results

Conclusion