The Role of Private Sector in Global Climate Governance

The private sector plays an active role in implementation of mechanisms concerning the mitigation of climate change, including the Kyoto Protocol. In spite of that, the corporate actors play a limited direct role in international arenas when it comes to negotiating the design of climate regime. The climate governance United Nations system remains state-centric, but the active participation of corporate actors in negotiation of climate regimes is essential to increase the efficiency of the climate governance. Business is not just a subject of a regulatory climate and energy imposed by the state; rather, business is an intrinsic part of the fabric of climate governance, as “rule maker”. This article analyses the role of the private sector has been played in the global climate governance. The focus of this study is an analysis of the ways in which the private sector responds to the agenda of climate change and climate governance. The private sector does not only play a “rule taker” role in the climate change regime, as it does not seem to act as passive observer. The results suggest that the private sector is able to play a key role in the changing architecture of global climate governance based on the principle of multi-stakeholder participation in global decision-making.