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A Climate of Change? The Oil Industry and Decarbonization in Historical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2019

Marten Boon
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Abstract

Decarbonization has been identified as necessary to preventing catastrophic climate change, creating a dilemma for the global oil industry. This article examines the industry's reaction to this dilemma and focuses on its historical response to market and governmental regulatory pressure. The article argues that differing national climate policies provoked some oil companies to develop proactive decarbonization strategies. However, the continued growth of fossil fuel demand, the industry's vested interests, and the voluntary nature of climate governance have resulted in the industry taking very little meaningful action to achieve decarbonization.

Keywords

multinational oil companiesenvironmental historyclimate changeenergy transitiondecarbonization
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 93 , Issue 1: Business and the Environment Revisited , Spring 2019 , pp. 101 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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Footnotes

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the University of Umeå and Harvard Business School. The author would like to thank Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Mattias Näsman and three anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and suggestions.

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