ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the increasingly important role of the private sector in the governance of climate change. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the private sector in proposals to address climate change. Business has hence been cast simultaneously as the problem and the source of solutions to climate change. Private sector organizations have played a significant role in the evolution of the climate regime: providing expertise, lobbying governments and international institutions, and traditionally cautioning against more ambitious action on the issue. More recently, however, many firms have come to see action on climate change as a potential opportunity rather than a threat. From emissions trading to the carbon offset market and the drive to net zero emissions, from investments in technology and new investment strategies to voluntary science-based targets and commodity roundtables, financial and business actors now play a central role in the day-to-day governance of climate change. As well as influencing traditional forms of state-led international governance, the chapter explores how private actors have increasingly been constructing their own forms of governance and the challenges this creates.
