ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how multinational corporations have reacted to this diversity of emissions trading schemes and policies, and the implications of these responses for public policy on climate change. It presents an analysis of the Financial Times Global 500 companies to the fourth questionnaire sent out by the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2006. Emissions trading are the climate change policy option that has received most attention–specifically so-called 'cap and trade' systems. First, the chapter examines corporate responses in three different ways. Then, it examines how companies have responded when faced with a hard regulatory constraint and the views and responses of companies that do not have to meet this type of constraint. Finally, the material provides some important insights into corporate responses to emissions trading and how these responses have influenced emissions trading schemes. For these companies, their response is influenced as much by the specific constraints that they face as by the overall corporate position on climate change.
