The evolution of multinationals' responses to climate change

Climate change is one of the environmental issues that has increasingly attracted business attention in the course of the 1990s. Multinationals have developed different strategies over the years, initially more political, nonmarket in nature, but currently also market-oriented. This article examines the evolution of multinationals' responses to climate change, paying attention to both market and non-market components. It first gives an overview of the main policy developments, followed by a characterisation of non-market and market responses, based on a survey among the largest multinationals worldwide. The chapter also reflects on overall corporate responses to climate change, paying attention to the influence of the policy contexts on emergent market strategies, and taking respondent characteristics regarding country of origin and sector into account.