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Private regulatory systems, including voluntary efforts by firms to restrain their own behavior are the primary form of global climate change governance. However when environmental challenges first rose up on the scientific and political agendas during the 1970s, the initial emphasis was on states and government regulation coordinated by the United Nations. This working paper provides a business history perspective how the privatization of global environmental governance happened and show how the system of private regulation was put in place before climate change became a priority issue. We argue that there were two separate paths which eventually merged. The first was the growth of certification schemes for emergent categories such as organic food, green buildings and sustainable investment which lacked definitions and legitimacy. Policy makers had no interest in them, or positively disliked them. Institutional entrepreneurs build institutions to create credibility and legitimacy. These entrepreneurs were drawn from outside big business, and were in some cases hostile to it. The second path was the growing engagement of big business pressure groups, notably the International Chamber of Commerce, in the environmental strategies of the United Nations. Institutional entrepreneurs were again important developing the arguments and concepts around business self-regulation. The two paths merged from the 1990s, as societal pressures for business to act on the environment have grown louder, so greenwashing, green-hushing, transition washing have diffused throughout global climate governance system.

This paper engages with the literature that has looked at the historical response to climate change among industries positioned to have had a far-reaching impact on changing the course of the climate crisis. While much of the historical research in this domain has focused on the role of big oil companies, the utility industry and conservative think tanks in the manufacturing of doubt regarding climate science and opposing ambitions climate policies, our focus is on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – the world’s largest transnational business association. Unlike individual multinational corporations, the ICC developed a close ties and collaborations with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which made ICC positioned to influence international policy discussions. This study finds that the ICC developed a dual strategy, which set aside climate change as the focus for discussion and business action. One strategy, led by ICC Environment Committee, involved intense collaboration with the United Nations and developing a business agenda for sustainable development. At the same time, the creation of the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC) in 1991, gave rise to a parallel strategy, led by ICC’s related oil companies. As this study finds, the ICC’s Energy Committee developed close ties to the Global Climate Coalition, a front group designed to combat the scientific evidence of climate change. The paper concludes that the ICC was able to delay meaningful regulatory response to climate change the between 1988-1992 by forming a broad coalition of competing interests and collaborating with agencies established under the auspices of the United Nations.

This document lays out the background for the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and may therefore be updated and republished in different versions according to the requirements of the program. This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective., Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, M22-0029

The climate crisis is at the core of attention to the need for an energy transition at a scale resembling a new ‘low carbon’ industrial revolution. As energy transitions are relatively exceptional and prolonged processes, social scientists have increasingly turned their attention to historical experiences for lessons about how they might unfold in the future. Against this backdrop, the paper examines how the present political economy and barriers for energy transitions compare with past energy transitions. The paper argues that formidable challenges posed by existing energy regimes. Established over centuries and having played a foundational role in the development of modern capitalism since the Industrial Revolution, these 'incumbent' regimes or ‘historical blocks’ are not easily displaced. It urges economic historians to move beyond its traditional focus on how energy via technological change has created new economic growth opportunities and look more into the barriers for energy transition embedded in the architecture of the political economy.

This article examines the growth of the waste and recycling sector in Sweden since the 1970s and seeks to identify the conditions for market growth and underlying business dynamics. The article identifies a slow growth pattern at aggregate level in the 1970s, while a major shift toward higher growth rates took place only in the mid-1990s. Resembling the findings of existing studies of German and US industry counterparts, Swedish recycling companies grew larger in the 1970s and more knowledge-intensive from the 1980s. Our study concludes that the growth of the Swedish recycling industry has been driven not only by government policies addressing household waste but even more so by large manufacturing firms that have increasingly demanded more complex recycling services over time.

The paper analyzes the prerequisites for a regulatory-driven transition toward radically lower air and water pollution in industry. This is achieved in the empirical context of the Swedish mining and metals industry, and by investigating the environmental licensing processes during two regulatory systems. The paper derives an analytical framework that explores under what circumstances such licensing processes can result in radical emissions reductions without seriously jeopardizing the competitiveness of the industry. Archived material covering six environmental licensing processes, three during each system, is used to illustrate the various design and implementation issues. The results suggest that regulatory-driven green transitions benefit from trust-based bargaining procedures in which companies are involved in repeated interactions with regulatory authorities, and which extended probation periods permit tests of novel abatement technologies (including innovation). The findings also illustrate the importance of abstaining from simplified normative notions about policy instrument choice (e.g. taxes versus standards).

Denna rapport behandlar frågan hur miljöprövningen av industriell verksamhet kan utformas och genomföras på ett sätt som så effektivt som möjligt reglerar lokal miljöpåverkan, utan att samtidigt äventyra de framtida investeringar som idag är nödvändiga för klimatomställningen. Rapporten visar att det finns goda förutsättningar att utforma den framtida miljöprövningen på ett sådant sätt. Slutsatsen baseras på erfarenheter från 50 år av miljöprövning av svensk industri. Syftet med rapporten är att: (a) beskriva och syntetisera viktiga erfarenheter från prövningen av svensk industri i enlighet med miljöskyddslagen under 1970-, 80-och 90-talen; samt (b) diskutera hur dagens prövning – enligt miljöbalken – kan utformas och genomföras för att reducera miljöpåverkan men samtidigt skapa goda förutsättningar för industrins långsiktiga konkurrenskraft. Analysen baseras påtidigare forskning, med fokus på miljöprövningen av enskilda anläggningar i svensk pappers- och massaindustri samt gruv- och metallindustri. En viktig utgångspunkt är att en god förståelse av miljöprövningens ändamålsenlighet inte enbart handlar om miljölagstiftningens innehåll, utan minst lika mycket om praxis, det vill säga omhur miljöprövningen utformas och implementeras i praktiken. Under perioden 1969–1998 tillämpades 1969 års miljöskyddslag av Koncessionsnämnden för miljöskydd, föregångaren till nuvarande mark- och miljödomstolarna. Koncessionsnämndens miljöprövning av svenska industrianläggningar under denna epok baserades på relativt jämbördiga, konsensusinriktade samt frekvent återkommande dialoger mellan myndigheter och verksamhetsutövare. Denna modell för samverkan kring industriföroreningar hade gradvis etablerats under flera decennie rinnan miljöskyddslagens införande. Denna samverkan inbegrep även ett starktfokus på kunskapsutveckling och överföring av kunskap. Detta – i kombination med ett konsekvent och frekvent nyttjande av begränsningsvärden och generösa prövoperioder – möjliggjorde såväl lå

This working paper examines the historical role of business interests in shaping structures for global environmental governance. Drawing on extensive historical evidence from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and other archives, the paper demonstrates that international business associations, in particular the ICC were instrumental to the transformation of international environmental governancebetween the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. The ICC, which was sidelined in the debates on the environment in Stockholm in 1972, gradually managed to establish itself as a key partner for the United Nations and to introduce a liberal environmental vision that emphasized economic growth, market forces, free trade, and business self-regulation as a source of environmental governance. While environmental debate at the time for the Stockholm conference in 1972 was centered around the notion of Limits to Growth we find that the ICC actively contributed to the definition of the concept sustainable development. This paper not only helps to explain the role of business in constructing the concept of sustainable development but also why the concept became so widely accepted in the world business community. The problem was that this conception of sustainable development allowed for the incremental greening of corporations, which did not reflect the real need for measures to prevent the ongoing environmental crisis from worsening, including climate change., Ce working paper examine le rôle historique des multinationales dans la mise en place d’une gouvernance environnementale internationale. En s'appuyant sur de nombreux fonds d’archives, en particulier ceux de la Chambre de Commerce Internationale (CCI), l'objectif de ce working paper est de montrer que les organisations patronales internationales, en particulier la CCI, ont joué un rôle déterminant dans la transformation de la gouvernance environnementale mondiale entre la Conférence des Nations Unies sur l'environnement humain à Stockholm en 1972 et le Sommet de la Terre à Rio en 1992. La CCI, qui avait été mise à l'écart lors des débats à Stockholm, a progressivement réussi à s'imposer comme un partenaire clé des Nations Unies et à introduire, voire imposer une vision libérale de l'environnement qui mettait l'accent sur la croissance économique, les forces du marché, le libre-échange et l'autorégulation des entreprises comme instruments de la gouvernance environnementale. Alors que le débat environnemental à l'époque de la conférence de Stockholm en 1972 était centré sur la notion de limites à la croissance, nous constatons que la CCI a activement contribué, durant les deux décennies suivantes, à la définition du concept de développement durable. Ce working paper permet non seulement d'expliquer le rôle des multinationales dans l’émergence de ce concept, mais aussi de comprendre pourquoi la notion de développement durable a été si largement acceptée par le monde des affaires. Cette conception du développement durable a certes rendu possible une progressive prise de conscience écologique des entreprises, mais elle n’a pas favorisé l’introduction des mesures visant à empêcher l'aggravation de la crise environnementale, notamment le changement climatique.

Vuxna bör följa uppmaningen från ungdomarna i Fridays for future-rörelsen och protestera eftersom det politiska ledarskapet är otillräckligt. Omfattande och långvariga påtryckningar från hela samhället behövs för att få de politiskt ansvariga att utöva det ledarskap som klimatkrisen kräver, skriver 171 forskare i samhällsvetenskap och humaniora., Debattartikel som 171 human- och samhällsvetenskapliga forskare har undertecknat.Alla som undertecknat har inte listats som författare i denna post

This study examines how the Swedish insurance company Ansvar established and expended an international business from the 1930s to the 1990s with the motives to insure total abstainers while battling against alcohol abuse in society. Anvar represented a for-profit business that aimed at addressing social issues. The case provides a historical example of how shared value was created between the company and the temperance movement for the joint goal of improving society through temperance. The article argues that the company’s decline was due to changing values, where alcohol was no longer seen as a threat to society.

The new estimates of the Maddison Project show that GDP per capita ratio at purchasing power parity (ppp) between Bolivia and Finland has changed from 0.68 ca. 1850 to 0.16 in 2015; similarly, that between Chile and Norway from 0.65 to 0.28. The aim of this article is to present a review of the literature and available quantitative evidence to understand how these extreme differences became possible between countries with similarly enormous natural resource endowments. Specifically, the article seeks to: (a) identify some stylized facts that may help understand the divergence between Andean and Nordic countries; (b) identify key historical processes that explain the divergent effect of natural resource abundance in Andean and Nordic economies. In order to achieve these objectives, four topics are covered: GDPpc, population, trade and taxation. The analysis comprises three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) and three Andean countries (Bolivia, Chile and Peru) from the mid-Nineteenth Century to present day. The sample size, time span covered and thematic approach provide new evidence regarding previous work.

Review of: Profits and Sustainability. A History of Green Entrepreneurship, by Geoffrey Jones, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 442 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-870697-7

This study examines how the Swedish insurance company Ansvar established and expended an international business from the 1930s to the 1990s with the motives to insure total abstainers while battling against alcohol abuse in society. Anvar represented a for-profit business that aimed at addressing social issues. The case provides a historical example of how shared value was created between the company and the temperance movement for the joint goal of improving society through temperance. The article argues that the company’s decline was due to changing values, where alcohol was no longer seen as a threat to society.