IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/wbk/wbpubs/39830.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

The Effect of Multinational Enterprises on Climate Change

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Steenbergen
  • Abhishek Saurav

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) provide both a fundamental risk to and an opportunity for climate change mitigation. The climate ambitions of MNEs will affect the environmental performance of countries around the world. As a leading actor, proactive MNEs can impose sustainability standards or encourage green technology transfers that, in some cases, could affect millions of producers and accelerate the climate transition. However, obstructive MNEs may equally hold back any progress to reduce a country’s emissions via inaction or by actively resisting, obstructing, or lobbying against change. The objective of this report is to study the effect of MNEs on climate change. Toward this goal, the report reviews the latest available data, conducts new empirical analysis, and summarizes pioneering literature. The report answers four key questions related to the relationship between MNEs and climate change: » What effect do MNEs currently have on climate change, both through their own activities and through the emissions of their broader supply chains? » How do MNEs shape the potential transfer of “green” technologies to domestic firms, and how do different types of interactions with MNEs stimulate such technology transfers? » How committed are leading MNEs currently to transitioning their supply chains to net-zero emissions by 2050, and do they have long-, medium-, and short-range strategies to realize this? » What types of policies can influence MNEs’ effects on climate change?

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Steenbergen & Abhishek Saurav, 2023. "The Effect of Multinational Enterprises on Climate Change," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 39830, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:39830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/def956de-eac5-4ede-a366-e01331481c99/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro, 1988. "Interdependence of industries, coordination failure and strategic promotion of an industry," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 25-43, August.
    2. Nicholas Powers & Allen Blackman & Thomas Lyon & Urvashi Narain, 2011. "Does Disclosure Reduce Pollution? Evidence from India’s Green Rating Project," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 50(1), pages 131-155, September.
    3. Mark A. Cohen & Adeline Tubb, 2018. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firm and Country Competitiveness: A Meta-analysis of the Porter Hypothesis," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 371-399.
    4. Simone Borghesi & Chiara Franco & Giovanni Marin, 2020. "Outward Foreign Direct Investment Patterns of Italian Firms in the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(1), pages 219-256, January.
    5. Rodrik, Dani, 2004. "Industrial Policy for the Twenty-First Century," Working Paper Series rwp04-047, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Dam, Lammertjan & Scholtens, Bert, 2008. "Environmental regulation and MNEs location: Does CSR matter?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 55-65, August.
    7. Johanna Gast & Katherine Gundolf & Beate Cesinger, 2017. "Doing business in a green way: A systematic review of the ecological sustainability entrepreneurship literature and future research directions," Post-Print hal-02008555, HAL.
    8. Yeseul Kim & Dong-Eun Rhee, 2019. "Do Stringent Environmental Regulations Attract Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries? Evidence on the “Race to the Top” from Cross-Country Panel Data," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2796-2808, September.
    9. Torfinn Harding & Beata S. Javorcik, 2011. "Roll Out the Red Carpet and They Will Come: Investment Promotion and FDI Inflows," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(557), pages 1445-1476, December.
    10. Bingler, Julia Anna & Kraus, Mathias & Leippold, Markus & Webersinke, Nicolas, 2022. "Cheap talk and cherry-picking: What ClimateBert has to say on corporate climate risk disclosures," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    11. Richter, Wolfram F. & Schneider, Kerstin, 2003. "Energy taxation: Reasons for discriminating in favor of the production sector," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 461-476, June.
    12. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Rault, Christophe, 2014. "Causal interactions between CO2 emissions, FDI, and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic simultaneous-equation models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 382-389.
    13. Magali Delmas & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho & Jay P. Shimshack, 2010. "Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence From The Electricity Industry," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 483-498, April.
    14. Mihaela Göndör & Paula Nistor, 2012. "Does High Corporate Tax Rates Attract Foreign Direct Investment?," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(1), pages 1433-1438, May.
    15. World Bank, 2012. "Inclusive Green Growth : The Pathway to Sustainable Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6058, April.
    16. Kim, Eun-Hee & Lyon, Thomas P., 2011. "Strategic environmental disclosure: Evidence from the DOE's voluntary greenhouse gas registry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 311-326, May.
    17. Trindade, Vitor, 2005. "The big push, industrialization and international trade: The role of exports," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 22-48, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abhishek Saurav & Brody Viney, 2020. "Catalyzing Investment for Green Growth," World Bank Publications - Reports 35056, The World Bank Group.
    2. Hallegatte, Stephane & Fay, Marianne & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien, 2013. "Green industrial policies : when and how," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6677, The World Bank.
    3. Shi, Daqian & Bu, Caiqi & Xue, Huiyuan, 2021. "Deterrence effects of disclosure: The impact of environmental information disclosure on emission reduction of firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Ronghui Xie & Shengjie Zhang, 2024. "Re†examining the impact of global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on haze pollution—considering the moderating mechanism of environmental regulation," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(6), pages 3186-3209, September.
    5. Belay, Dagim G. & Jensen, Jørgen D., 2020. "‘The scarlet letters’: Information disclosure and self-regulation: Evidence from antibiotic use in Denmark," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    6. Imad Moosa, 2019. "The Environmental Effects of FDI: Evidence from MENA Countries," Working Papers 1321, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Aug 2019.
    7. Chen, Victor L. & Delmas, Magali A. & Locke, Stephen L. & Singh, Amarjeet, 2017. "Information strategies for energy conservation: A field experiment in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 215-227.
    8. Delmas, Magali A. & Lessem, Neil, 2014. "Saving power to conserve your reputation? The effectiveness of private versus public information," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 353-370.
    9. Buera, Francisco & Hopenhayn, Hugo & Shin, Yongseok & Trachter, Nicholas, 2021. "Big Push in Distorted Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 15910, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Le Ngoc, Anh & Heshmati, Almas, 2025. "The Green Path: FDI’s Influence on Asia’s Sustainable Economic Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 17900, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Dai, Siwei & Du, Xiaoyan, 2023. "Discovering the role of trade diversification, natural resources, and environmental policy stringency on ecological sustainability in the BRICST region," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    12. T. Robert Fetter & Andrew L. Steck & Christopher Timmins & Douglas Wrenn, 2018. "Learning by Viewing? Social Learning, Regulatory Disclosure, and Firm Productivity in Shale Gas," NBER Working Papers 25401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Matisoff, Daniel C., 2013. "Different rays of sunlight: Understanding information disclosure and carbon transparency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 579-592.
    14. Earnhart, Dietrich & Germeshausen, Robert & von Graevenitz, Kathrine, 2022. "Effects of information-based regulation on financial outcomes: Evidence from the European Union's public emission registry," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-015, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Aliénor Cameron & Marc Baudry, 2023. "The case for carbon leakage and border adjustments: where do economists stand?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 25(3), pages 435-469, July.
    16. Nicholas E. Powers, 2013. "Measuring The Impact Of The Toxics Release Inventory: Evidence From Manufacturing Plant Births," Working Papers 13-07, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Josef Gotvald, 2024. "The role of environmental taxes and other political instruments on the road to climate neutrality [Role environmentálních daní a dalších politických nástrojů na cestě za klimatickou neutralitou]," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2024(1), pages 47-76.
    18. Hafele, Jakob & Kuhls, Sonia, 2022. "Trade-off or tension: Can carbon be priced without risking economic competitiveness?," ZOE Discussion Papers 9, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.
    19. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.
    20. Caroline Flammer & Michael W. Toffel & Kala Viswanathan, 2021. "Shareholder activism and firms' voluntary disclosure of climate change risks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(10), pages 1850-1879, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:39830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tal Ayalon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.