My colleague, Leon Hirt, and I have a review paper published today in WIREs Climate Change. The paper explores the historical evolution of the metaphor of ‘clean’ in the context of energy and climate policy. We show how the original relational meaning of ‘clean’ — describing a desirable set of social relations — has changed in more contemporary usage, in the climate context, into the idea of a ‘telos’, describing a desirable end state. We believe this new connotation of ‘clean’ directs and constrains the climate policy imaginary, favouring techno-centric solutions for climate change. As in other policy areas, the choice of metaphor is never neutral.

Abstract

Amid a sense of crisis, urgency, and political inaction pertaining to climate change, a narrative of “cleaning up” the global atmosphere is emerging in scientific, political, and public discourse. It conveys the need to stabilize the climate by achieving temperature targets and net-zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The metaphor of “clean” is a central feature of this narrative, and it emphasizes technological interventions to reduce and remove CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere. Metaphors frame sustainability challenges (e.g., climate change), guide actions, and delineate possible futures. Through a historical reading of “clean” in relation to bodies and air in European cultures, the meaning of a “clean” atmosphere and how it provides order to contemporary societies is explored. Historically, the metaphor functioned in a relational sense—relationships were shaped by shared ideas of cleanliness, informed by religion, science, and, moral and civic considerations, generating practices and reflections on identity. Over time, “clean” came to be interpreted more often than not as a telos—a state of purity defined by science. Today, a “clean” atmosphere is similarly treated as a telos—a condition to be achieved to stabilize the climate, thus aligning economic growth and energy with emissions control and legitimizing human interventions, notably CO₂ removal. In a moment of perceived crisis and cultural plasticity, reclaiming a relational understanding of “clean” that foregrounds context, culture, and ethics, could be desirable. This relational framing could help redirect climate futures and foster more inclusive, socially sensitive, and just approaches to climate change.