Global warming as investment climate: green tech and the translation of needs

Abstract

Climate change is not only altering temperatures but also the very composition of the economic field. So-called ‘green tech firms’ are successfully claiming new jurisdictional task areas related to ecological needs. Aiming to understand better the rise and strategies of these economic actors, this article combines theoretical approaches by Foucault and Callon to show how green tech firms translate global warming into possibilities for investment. On the basis of a discourse analysis of job ads and websites (n = 116 documents), three moments of translation are identified and differentiated: (1) problematization, (2) the construction of obligatory passing points, and (3) interessement and enrolment. Through these three moments, green tech firms avoid discussions of differential responsibility for climate change and position themselves within a network of invested actors as indispensable for harmonizing economic and ecological interests.