Techno-Climentality: Digital Technologies and the Transformation of Environmental Governance (SI)

Abstract

Climate technologies, “nature tech,” and digital earth infrastructures are now rapidly proliferating as tools to monitor and manage changing environments. Such technologies remake the actors, sites, institutions, and practices involved in environmental governance. They can transplant governance from state to nonstate actors and from public to private institutions. They can also forestall more full-scale social, political, and ecological change needed to address the root causes of climate change. Building on the concept of “cli-mentality” from Steig and Oels (2025), this research article proposes a technology-centric investigation in the form of “techno-climentality” to analyze the consequences of these proliferating devices and infrastructures. Through interview, survey, and case study research on digitalizing forests in locations worldwide, we show how technology-led environmental governance can create unequal power, resource, and knowledge practices, along with transformations in community engagement. Techno-climentality centers on how digital technologies can depoliticize and remove environmental governance from wider accountability, yet also be transformed toward more pluralistic and just practices of governance.