Business and Climate Change Governance South Africa in Comparative Perspective

by Börzel, Tanja A.; Hamann, Ralph

• ISBN13: 9781137302731
• ISBN10: 1137302739
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-09-12
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Why do business organisations contribute to climate change governance in areas of limited statehood? In many countries, governments are too weak and often also not willing to set and enforce climate change regulations. While companies have the capacities to fill the resulting governance gap, conventional wisdom expects them to take advantage by relocating their production sites in order to escape strict national regulation. Studies on South Africa, Kenya and Germany demonstrate that business contributions to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change vary significantly between countries, sectors and firms. In order to explain these variations, the contributors bring together two important literatures that rarely speak to each other – governance and business management - arguing that the threat of public regulation has an important role in motivating business efforts.

Author Biography

Tanja A. Börzel is Professor of Political Science and holds the Chair for European Integration at the Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She is co-coordinator of the Research College "The Transformative Power of Europe" and directs the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence 'Europe and its Citizens'. Her research focus and teaching experience lie in the field of institutional theory and Governance, European Integration, and comparative regionalism.

Ralph Hamann is Research Director and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research is on business sustainability strategy and cross-sector collaboration.

Table of Contents

1. Business Contributions to Climate Change Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: Introduction; Ralph Hamann and Tanja A. Börzel
2. Corporate Response to Climate Change in Areas of Limited Statehood: An Outline of the Organisational Configurations in Kenya and South Africa; Farai Kapfudzaruwa
3. Climate Change Policies in the Car Industry: Asset Specificity as a Driver of Internal Innovation; Christian R. Thauer
4. Renewable Energy Incentives Across Varying levels of Statehood; John Fay
5. Voluntary Collective Commitment: the Case of Business and Energy Efficiency in South Africa; Christopher Kaan and Stine Klapper
6. Business Contributions to Climate Change Adaptation – From Coping to Transformation? Insights from South Africa and Germany; Nicole Kranz
7. Adaptation to Climate Change: An Investigation into Woolworths' Water Management Measures; Nadine Methner
8. Insurance, Climate-risk and the Barriers to Change; Tom Herbstein, Jan Froestad, Deon Nel and Clifford Shearing
9. Of Culture and Religion: Insurance Regulation and the Informal Economy in a South African City; Moliehi Shale
10. Business and Climate Change Governance: Conclusions; Tanja Börzel, Ralph Hamann and Nicole Kranz