The Role of Corporate Scientists and Institutional Context: Corporate Responses to Climate Change in the Automobile Industry

Corporations are critical players in the worldwide effort to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They account for the vast majority of them, while also controlling the technological and organizational resources which, if applied appropriately, could play a major role in reducing GHG emissions. The science, technology and society (STS) literature examines the interface between science and policy and suggests that scientific knowledge and social structures of governance are coproduced, and that the boundaries between policy and science are inherently ambiguous and subject to continuous renegotiation (Kerkhoff and Lebel, 2006). The private sector, however, has generally been neglected in this debate. Although there has been some growing recognition of the role of private actors such as corporations in international environmental regimes (Clapp, 1998; Haufler, 1998), little attention has been paid to the role of the private sector at the science- policy interface. Yet, this role can be critical in the policy making process (Ehrlich, 2006).