Corporate Climate Action, Transnational Politics, and World Order (Environmental Politics and Theory)

This book explores the origins and significance of the corporate climate action phenomenon, which has attracted increased attention in recent years. It examines how and why, during the 2010s, American, German, and Indian corporations spanning finance, technology, automotive, and energy-intensive industries adopted certain climate practices and converged around the idea that the private sector has a vital role to play in addressing climate change and advancing a low-carbon future. It also considers how policy developments that states widely understood as watersheds, including the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, simply confirmed what the private sector had long believed: that states lacked answers about how to achieve concerted, ambitious, and effective climate action. It was in this context, amid diminishing expectations for robust state climate action, that select corporations sought to fill a perceived leadership vacuum in an issue area poised to shape future global trends. Providing a novel assessment of the corporate sector as a climate actor, this book evaluates how the shift in the center of gravity in the climate change issue area away from national governments and toward other players may influence world order and impact an international security landscape increasingly defined by non-military challenges. Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction The Private Sector as Climate Actor Transnational Politics and Corporate Climate Action The Emergent Corporate Climate Consensus Identifying Climate Convergence Identifying and Explaining Emergent Outcomes Hypothesis 1 (H1) Hypothesis 2 (H2) Hypothesis 3 (H3) Corporate Climate Action as a Window on World Order Roadmap for the Book References 2 Change of Players, Change of Game Introduction Part I: International Context for Corporate Climate Action Kyoto to Copenhagen: 1997–2009 The Road to Paris: 2010–2013 The Paris Conference: 2014–2015 Part II: Germany Germany and the Climate Agenda The “Ambition-Action” Gap and the Potential for Misperception Part III: India The Prevailing Logic of Co-benefits The “Ambition-Action” Gap and the Potential for Misperception Part IV: The United States Misaligned Climate “Games” and the Potential for Misperception: The Clinton Presidency Climate Partisanship and the Potential for Misperception: The Obama Presidency Conclusion References 3 The Train Has Left the Station: Automotive and Energy-Intensive Industries Introduction Part I: The Automotive Industry Automakers’ Behavior, 2010–2017 Identifying New Climate Practices Industry-Level Foundations of the Emergent Climate Consensus Part II: Energy-Intensive Industries Energy-Intensive Companies’ Behavior, 2010–2017 Identifying New Climate Practices Industry-Level Foundations of the Emergent Climate Consensus Conclusion References 4 Climate Influencers: Technology Introduction Part I: Climate Action, 2010–2017 Technology Companies’ Behavior, 2010–2017 Identifying New Climate Practices Part II: The Logic of Emergence Conclusion References 5 “The Earth Is Shifting Beneath Their Feet”: Finance Introduction Part I: The Old Dominant Design Comes Under Pressure Part II: Climate Action, 2010–2017 Finance Companies’ Behavior, 2010–2017 Identifying New Climate Practices Part III: Patterns of Emergent Action Conclusion References 6 The Emergent Corporate Climate Consensus Introduction Part I: The Development of a Corporate Climate Consensus Corporate Behavior, 2010–2017 Part II: Private Sector Responses to State Abdication of Leadership Part III: Corporations’ Climate Action and Ambition Hypothesis 2: Industry Type Hypothesis 3: Headquarter Country Inadvertent Change in the Climate Game References 7 Superpowers, Inc.: Lessons on World Order Introduction Lesson 1: Corporations May Be Better Than States at Recognizing New “Games” Lesson 2: Corporations Can Shape New Arenas for State Behavior, Including Great Power Competition Lesson 3: Corporations Have the Potential to Become Grand Strategic Actors Lesson 4: Corporations Have the Potential to Outperform States in Tackling Twenty-First Century Problem Sets Conclusion References Appendix Part I: Climate Practices and Company Typology Data sources Summary of Scoring and Classification Methodology Industry Category 1: Automotive Industry category 2: Energy-intensive industries Cement Chemical Oil and Gas Pharmaceutical Power Steel Industry Category 3: Technology Hardware-Focused Companies Software-Focused Companies Industry Category 4: Finance Insurers Banks Part II: Corporate Perceptions of Climate-Related Risks and Opportunities Data Sources Summary of Methodology Actual and Anticipated Material Impact of Risks and Opportunities Likelihood and Time Horizon Calculating “Perception Strength” by Year and Period Index