ABSTRACT
This chapter compares climate strategies of six major corporations in the chemical industry. In the chemical industry, stances on climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) policies are company-specific rather than country-specific. The most striking result for the chemical industry is that one cannot observe a generic antagonism of GHG strategies between US-based companies and European-based companies. In a US–Europe comparison, basic positions of the chemical industry do not follow those found, for example, in the oil industry. The contrast with the oil industry remains marked; dominant USA players in the chemical industry show a positive attitude towards climate policies, whereas their European counterparts show a more reserved position. In the chemical industry, the regulatory context and societal context play a less clear-cut role than in the oil industry. The chemical industry is dominated by large corporations that operate internationally and can be characterised as a process industry.
