Climate change policy in Europe and US: the role of corporate social responsibility

Abstract

We discuss the natural and societal challenges and drivers in the energy and climate debate and compare the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the US and Europe as an example of soft law. Dramatic CO2 emission reductions are necessary (~95%), but there is no hard law in sight to provide the needed legal framework for such reductions. Surprisingly CSR has begun to play a role in changing both the US and the European energy policies and could become the key future driver. However, on its own CSR is unlikely to achieve the needed scale of reductions.