This text is a primer on international business and global climate change, introducing the topic and examining in depth all business aspects in relation to recent policy-making. Embedded in relevant management literature, it gives a comprehensive treatment of the different business responses to climate change and climate change policy, covering developments in policy and business activity on global, regional and national levels. Using examples and systematic data from a large number of international companies, the text explores market responses to climate change and developments in strategy, organization, marketing, policy, accounting and finance.
International Business and Global Climate Change is a concise illustration of how an environmental topic becomes strategically important in a mainstream sense, affecting corporate decision-making, business processes, products, reputation, advertising, communication, accounting and finance.
1. Introduction
Part I: Between Regulation and Self-Regulation
2. From Rio to 'Beyond Kyoto': Synopsis of International Climate Policies
3. Beyond Regulation: Voluntary Agreements and Partnerships
4. Carbon Control: Emissions Measurement, Targets and Reporting
Part II: Strategic Options for Business
5. Business Strategies for Climate Change
6. Carbon Trading as (Compliance) Strategy
7. Innovation and Capabilities for Climate Change Conclusions
8. Dilemmas on the Way Forward
Jonatan Pinkse is Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam Business School, The Netherlands. His publications have focused on strategy and sustainability, especially business responses to climate change.
Ans Kolk is Full Professor of Sustainable Management at the University of Amsterdam Business School, The Netherlands. She has published extensively on business and climate change, corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability.
"The book is generally well-written and very clearly organized, and it is the product of years of engagement by the authors with the topic of climate change and corporate social responsibility."
– Journal of International Business Studies
"Although this topic is of vital importance to business, as well as to society, the authors make no attempt to sound alarms; they simply provide the results of intensive research in the matter of business reactions to global climate change. Readers wishing to further investigate the topic will find the comprehensive list of references helpful."
– W.C. Struning, Seton Hall University, USA; Choice (Sept 2009, Vol. 47)
"Ans Kolk and Jonatan Pinkse are the world's leading thinkers on the interface between international business and global climate change. This well-written book will greatly benefit any scholar or manager looking for state-of-the-art knowledge on corporate responses to the defining environmental challenge of our generation."
– Alain Verbeke, University of Calgary, USA
"This timely and comprehensive book is an excellent contribution to contemporary management studies. It is highly relevant to managers, scholars and students in strategic management and global governance, two fields in which globalisation is leading to such intense innovation that the basics of our current frameworks are being seriously tested. [...] This publication is a "must-read" also for policy-makers and civil society leaders who want a better understanding of regulatory, co-regulatory and self-regulatory policy instruments and processes that address the key challenges of climate change."
– Gilbert Lenssen, European Academy of Business in Society
"Climate change is the single most important strategic issue facing business in the next fifty years. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the strategic options facing businesses as they struggle to cope with the sweeping competitive and regulatory challenges that climate change presents to various sectors. The authors draw from their rich scholarly knowledge of business and climate change to craft a very accessible and relevant portrayal of key aspects of emissions management, carbon trading, and innovation strategies."
– David Levy, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA