Change in the marketplace: business leadership and communication

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511535871.024

21 - Change in the marketplace: business leadership and communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2009

Vicki Arroyo and

Benjamin Preston

Edited by

Susanne C. Moser and

Lisa Dilling

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Vicki Arroyo: Affiliation:
Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Arlington, VA
Benjamin Preston: Affiliation:
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, VIC Australia (previously at the Pew Center)
Susanne C. Moser: Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder
Lisa Dilling: Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder

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Summary

In recent years, there has been a shift in the way companies are thinking about climate change and the policies needed to curb it. This change has been heralded by the popular press – including a cover story in Business Week in August 2004 entitled “Climate Change – Why Business is Taking it Seriously” (Carey and Shapiro, 2004). Climate change has also been featured in recent issues of Fortune (Stipp, 2003) and The Economist (2004). In addition, the influential Conference Board recently issued a statement emphasizing the need for firms to evaluate their contribution to the problem, and a number of shareholder resolutions and lawsuits are driving companies to examine and explain their strategies and plans for conducting business in a carbon-constrained world (Bennett, 2004; Leahy et al., 2004; Carlton et al., 2004; see also Atcheson, Chapter 22, this volume).

This shift did not happen overnight. In the years leading up to negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol, a large number of companies participated in a vocal industry group called the Global Climate Coalition (GCC). This coalition opposed any binding restrictions on GHG emissions, questioning the scientific basis for concerns about human-induced climate change and arguing that climate policy would be costly and result in job losses (see McCright, Chapter 12, this volume).

Although the GCC helped to polarize the climate change debate, it was not necessarily representative of the entire business community's perspective on climate change (Climate Change Task Force, 1997).

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Creating a Climate for Change
Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change
, pp. 319 - 338

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511535871.024 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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