Under the Radar: A Coherent System of Climate Governance, Driven by Business

Abstract

Initiatives by private actor groups to cut carbon emissions, adopt climate-smart agriculture practices and increase renewable energy are growing in scope and ambition. Although links exist with public policy, these actions are not mandated by public law. Instead, participation is driven by a complex mix of other compelling motivations, including pressure from investors and the public, maintaining access to markets, and a growing economic and social case for climate action. This paper presents the hypothesis that these growing private efforts, when examined collectively, begin to take on the attributes and functions of a system of governance that could be vital to societal decarbonization. This analysis takes the concept of private governance further than most studies by not just evaluating specific initiatives against governance criteria, but looking at the entire field of private climate action to ask whether the collective effort hangs together as a system of governance and should be treated as such by its many participants. Although coherent and growing, the system is at a delicate moment with its future, and perhaps ours, dependent on whether bridges are built, barriers are cleared, and current and new players better coordinate. The paper includes a proposed research and action agenda to advance these goals.

Keywords: corporate governance, climate change, supply chain, governance, CSR, soft law, corporate sustainability

JEL Classification: K2, K32, L1, L2, L5, M1, M14, Q54