Corporate commitments to net-zero emissions have expanded rapidly since the 2015 Paris Agreement, yet most corporate climate strategies remain narrowly focused on carbon reduction, with limited attention to the social and political dimensions of transition. This paper draws on feminist ethics of care to understand how justice can be more effectively embedded within the net-zero voluntary governance landscape: the standards, guidelines, and initiatives shaping corporate climate action. Drawing on workshops with globally diverse youth climate advocates and interviews with sustainability leads at multinational firms, we explore different conceptualisations of the ‘just transition’. While youth conceptualised just transitions as relational, place-based, and co-produced processes, firms often sought operational clarity, measurable outcomes, and reputational legitimacy. However, both groups critiqued the limits of carbon-centric governance and highlighted the need for more situated engagement with affected communities and environments.
This paper contributes to feminist care scholarship in three ways. First, it extends care theory into corporate climate governance and standardisation systems, positioning firms and governance architectures as potential sites and agents of care. Second, it frames care as an institutional and political practice capable of shaping global governance. Third, it demonstrates how care can operate as a practical framework for negotiating tensions between global governance systems and place-based demands for justice. We argue that more just and legitimate net-zero transitions require locally grounded approaches to co-producing transitions, stronger accountability mechanisms to prevent “justice-washing”, and participation in standards-making of underrepresented groups and plural forms of knowledge.
