Climate Change and Business: Historical Perspectives

Climate change is the greatest market failure in world history and thus the most urgent challenge in the world of business for the foreseeable future. This book brings together experts to shed light on the historical impact of business on climate change and of climate change on business. The book shows how corporate responses to climate change emerged out of earlier environmental concerns, regulatory frameworks, and in many cases already established business strategies. Contributors to the book analyse the evolution of business strategies to navigate environmental challenges even before climate crisis was widely recognised as an urgent concern. The historical insights presented by this book will be essential reading for business historians, as well as students, scholars, and reflective practitioners with an interest in the environment, political economy, business strategy, and risk management.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. Climate Change and Business: A New Perspective and Research Agenda Teresa da Silva Lopes, Paul Duguid and Robert Fredona 1. Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change Geoffrey Jones and Ann-Kristin Bergquist 2. Cars and Climate Change: The Historical Political Economy of a Green Transition Grace Ballor and Mattias Näsman 3. Pollution and Business: Case Studies from Modern Chinese Business History Ghassan Moazzin 4. Forests for Sale: Multinationals and Civil Society’s Oversight in the Palm Oil Agribusiness Shakila Yacob 5. Hurricanes and Floods: The Case of the US and the National Flood Insurance Policy Natalie Rauscher and Welf Werner 6. Rainfall Seasonality, Droughts, and Business Tirthankar Roy and Chinmay Tumbe 7. From Pastoral to Industrial Agriculture: Global Food Chains and the Drivers of Climate Change Simon Mowatt 8. Climate Change and the Business (History) of Energy Marten Boon 9. Climate Change and Corporate Adaptation: The Evolution of the Wine Industry in the Andes Teresa da Silva Lopes and Andrea Lluch 10. Towards a New Type of Tourism? From Conventional Tourism to Ecotourism in the Alps Laurent Tissot 11. Climate Change and the Insurance Industry: The Long Road to the UNEP 1995 Insurance Statement Niels Viggo Haueter 12. Business Facing Activism: Organized Business and Civil Society Movements in Germany and Switzerland since the 1970s Sabine Pitteloud 13. From Whitewashing to Greenwashing (and Back Again) Paul Duguid and Teresa da Silva Lopes 14. The Construction of Climate as a Business Risk through ESG and Sustainable Finance Judith Stroehle 15. Big Business and Climate Change Litigation in the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Bart Elmore

About the Author :
Teresa da Silva Lopes is Professor of International Business and Business History at the School for Business and Society, and Director of the Centre for the Evolution of Global Business and Institutions (CEGBI) at the University of York, UK. Paul Duguid is Adjunct Professor Emeritus in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Robert Fredona is Research Associate at Harvard Business School, USA.

Review :
"This thoughtful, stimulating, collection of original papers, written by accomplished business historians, excels in exploring both the impact and responses of business over time to the evolving evidence and proliferating policies on climate change. Here there is a fresh perspective that includes but extends beyond the debates on environmental and fossil fuel programs to encompass agriculture (palm oil), industry (automobiles, alcoholic beverages), insurance, and tourism. The coverage is global, including special chapters on China and India. The result is a rich and ambitious set of contributions that reveals the complex, nuanced reciprocal historical influences of business and climate change." Mira Wilkins, Professor of Economics Emeritus; Florida International University, USA "As a scientist and business owner, I have found that for something real and game-changing to be implemented in the climate change sphere, we need businesses to incorporate climate thinking into every area, from production, to human resources, to sales and marketing. This book documents the trajectory of these initiatives in various industries and regions. It is an essential piece of reading for all of us today." Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director of Bodega Catena Zapata and founder of the Catena Institute of Wine in Mendoza, Argentina "This edited volume, by Teresa da Silva Lopes, Paul Duguid, and Robert Fredona investigates the history of one of the biggest problems in the world today, climate change. The collected essays provide a critical perspective on the complex evolution of the problem itself, from nineteenth century awareness of weather changes and pollution hazards to modern efforts to collect data and enact policy changes to curb dependence on fossil fuels. These essays, many of which draw on archival sources, recast traditional histories of economic development by focusing on the consequences of industrial, agricultural, and technological change. They present a complex history of ways that firms have adapted to climate changes in the past and the ways that individual entrepreneurs have sought to abate environmental devastation in their industries. The essays also reveal how the effects of climate change have altered industries such as tourism and insurance and made other industries, such as winemaking, more vulnerable. Together the essays help to tell the multifaceted, non-linear, history that has led to this enormous global challenge." Walter Friedman, Director of the Business History Initiative at Harvard Business School and co-editor of the journal Business History Review