This paper explores the international dimensions of multinationals' corporate political activities, focusing on an international issue - climate change - that is being implemented differently in a range of countries. Analyzing data from FT Global 500 firms, it examines the influence on types and process of multinationals' political strategies, reckoning with institutional contexts and issue saliency. Findings show that the type of political activities can be characterized as an information strategy to influence policymakers towards market-based solutions, not so much withholding action on emission reduction. Moreover, multinationals pursue self-regulation, targeting a broad range of political actors. The process of political strategy is mostly one of collective action. International differences particularly surface in the type of political actors aimed at, with US and Australian firms focusing more on non-government actors (voluntary programs) than European and Japanese firms. Influencing home-country (not host-country) governments is the main component of international political strategy on climate change.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly facing global environmental issues which require coordinated market and non-market strategic responses. This article analyses the strategic responses by US and European multinational enterprises in the oil industry to the global climate change issue, considering the changes over time as well. Conventional drivers of strategy could not adequately explain the marked differences observed in the companies' responses. Instead, the study focused on the influence of the institutional environment. MNCs facing global issues such as climate change are immersed in multiple institutional contexts, subjecting them to competing pressures. The disparate reactions of U.S. and European oil companies in the early phase of the climate issue were found to be related to regulatory expectations, norms concerning the conduct of business-government relations, and cognitive assumptions regarding the future of fossil fuels and substitute technologies. These regulative, normative, and cognitive influences were associated with the institutional context of the MNCs' home country as well as with the specific history of each company. The oil companies perceived climate change as a major threat, and three of them adopted assertive responses; Exxon adopted an adversarial political strategy while BP and Shell pursued more accommodative and technologically oriented strategies. As the climate change issue matured, corporate perceptions were increasingly subject to convergent institutional pressures, which arose from the companies' common location in the global oil industry and from the emergence of climate change as a global issue arena. As a result of frequent interactions in these institutional environments, the companies have developed similar outlooks on markets and technologies. The emerging, more optimistic view of the future of the oil and gas business reduces the stakes and thus the need for assertive political or technological strategies. Moreover, companies are converging on the view that the flexible Kyoto mechanisms will provide only weak constraints on carbon emissions, reducing the cost of compliance. As a result, there are few rewards for proactively taking the risk of being a technological first-mover, and a resistant strategy that aggressively challenges policy may not be worth the cost in political and social legitimacy.

Why, despite two decades of climate policy, have affluent democracies made so little progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions? We know that there are ways of doing this that are both practical and affordable. It is politics that is the problem. Stringent climate policies may lead companies to redirect investment elsewhere, or lead voters to retaliate at the ballot box. There are many political obstacles to stronger action. What can be done? Based on an analysis of the logic of policy making, plus observation of recent developments in climate politics, this book identifies a broad range of political strategies that are available to governments that wish to take more effective action against climate change while avoiding serious political damage. Separate chapters deal with strategies relating to unilateral action, persuasion, political exchange, and changing the terms of political exchange. This is the first book-length study of political strategy and climate change and will be of interest not only to policymakers but also to experts and activists looking to formulate politically realistic policy proposals, and scholars and students of politics and environmental studies.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Multinational corporations are not merely the problem in environmental concerns, but could also be part of the solution. The oil industry and climate change provide the clearest example of how the two are linked; what is less well-known is how the industry is responding to these concerns. This volume presents a detailed study of the climate strategies of ExxonMobil, Shell and Statoil. With an innovative analytical approach, the authors explain variations at three decision-making levels: within the companies themselves, in the national home-bases of the companies, and at an international level. The analysis generates policy-relevant knowledge about whether and how corporate resistance to a viable climate policy can be overcome. The analytical approach developed by the authors is also applicable to other areas of environmental degradation where multinational corporations play a central role. The book is invaluable to students, researchers and practitioners interested in national and international environmental politics and business environmental management.

This book puts forward a distinctive theoretical approach and analytical framework for studying business as an international actor in the environmental field, and provides detailed case studies of the most important environmental challenges in recent years.

We are in a critical period where civil society organizations actively influence business political behaviour, while corporations and business associations are adopting new and flexible strategies aimed at closer contact with civil society. Against the backdrop of such broad reorientations, this book analyzes the new and changing roles of business and civil society actors to offer an accurate portrayal of the formation of global public policy. With contributions from leading experts in the field, it investigates the potential for, and emergence of, new policy arrangements along with their patterns of conflict and cooperation. Building upon theoretical inspirations from various traditions studying international affairs, this volume develops and applies the concepts of policy arrangements and countervailing power to the field of global business - civil society relations. A range of key issues including labour, consumers, global finance, the mining industry, climate policy and the World Economic and Social Forums are examined. Global Public Policy will be of strong interest to students and researchers of international political economy, international relations and international business.