Fossil fuel emitters and climate change governance : Understanding the roles of large oil and gas companies

• Global climate change governance is under increasing pressure to deliver meaningful climate action. It is now widely agreed that a low-carbon growth path requires major transformations of energy systems. This paper seeks to provide new conceptual and empirical insights into questions about different roles played by major oil and gas companies in climate change governance. Specifically, the paper examines how the ten largest oil and gas companies in the world present their rationales for addressing climate change and their activities related to climate action, including the oil and gas companies’ involvement in international climate diplomacy. The paper thereby contributes to the environmental governance literature by highlighting the North/South dimension and the state/non-state dimension of major oil and gas companies and their activities to address climate change. These issues touch upon central questions in the literature, such as the relations between state and non-state actors and our understanding of the allocation of responsibility in climate change politics. Its novel empirical findings also contribute to new insights into the climate change activities currently underway in the oil and gas sector. The paper thus has important implications both for the theory and practice of climate change governance.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Klimatforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Climate Research (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Oil and gas companies

climate change governance

private authority

non-state actors

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)