Addressing Climate Change in Responsible Research and Innovation: Recommendations for Its Operationalization

Ivan Ligardo-Herrera, Tomás Gómez-Navarro, Edurne A. Inigo and Vincent Blok
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Ivan Ligardo-Herrera: Institute of Energy Engineering IIE, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia 46022, Spain
Tomás Gómez-Navarro: Institute of Energy Engineering IIE, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia 46022, Spain
Edurne A. Inigo: Business Management and Organisation Group, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Vincent Blok: Business Management and Organisation Group, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has only lately included environmental sustainability as a key area for the social desirability of research and innovation. That is one of the reasons why just a few RRI projects and proposals include environmental sustainability, and Climate Change (CC) in particular. CC is one of the grand challenges of our time and, thus, this paper contributes to the operationalization of CC prevention in RRI. To this end, the tools employed against CC were identified. Tools originated in corporate social responsibility and sustainable innovation which help to operationalize strategies against CC in RRI practice. Complementarily, the latest proposals by RRI projects and actors related to CC were reviewed. The findings of the document analysis and the web review were arranged in a framework intended for research and innovation that has an indirect but relevant negative impact due to CC. Thus, four main strategies for CC prevention in RRI were determined: a voluntary integration of the aims, a life cycle perspective, open access databases and key performance indicators, and stakeholder management. The article is finished acknowledging diverse barriers hindering the operationalization of CC prevention in RRI, and we introduce future avenues for research in this area.

Keywords: responsible research and innovation; climate change; sustainable innovation; corporate social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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