This paper analyzes the nature and implications of a transparency turn in global climate governance. Specifically, we focus on the rationales and mechanisms underpinning a diffusion of transparency norms in public and private climate governance arrangements. Transparency –openness in decision-making and disclosure of information – is assumed to empower citizens and consumers to hold disclosers (usually governments and private actors) accountable, and thus provide incentives for improved sustainability performance as well. It does not always deliver on its empowerment potential, however; and its links to greater accountability remain tenuous in practice, particularly in the context of the Anthropocene. Deploying a critical transparency studies perspective, this paper analyzes whether and what kinds of accountability relationships are furthered via "governance by disclosure" in the climate realm. In so doing, it considers the transformative potential of transparency in global climate governance.
