Corporate responses to climate change: the role of partnerships

This chapter relates to the NWO-funded research project "‘Getting down to business’: Economic responses to climate change," which studied the (potential) contribution of business to climate change mitigation and adaptation. After an introductory overview of the overall project and its main findings, the chapter reports result on an empirical study on partnerships for climate change - forms of cooperation with governmental and societal actors. It presents data on climate partnerships of the Financial Times Global 500 companies. Findings show that companies are involved in a large number of partnerships, private-nonprofit, public-private and tripartite. Frequent government involvement suggests that partnerships are a new governance form, while cooperation with universities points at a corporate search for external climate-specific expertise. The largest number of partnerships has research as its main focus, followed by those targeting emissions reductions and policy influence, with those aiming at product launch and public education occurring least often. Companies’ motives and strategic benefits of the different partnership types are explored, and areas for further research suggested.