Business Power and Conflict in International Environmental Politics

How powerful is business in international environmental protection? Modern industrial sectors are often at the root of global environmental problems such as global warming and ozone layer depletion, but are they also the main source of inertia and obstruction that often hold back international efforts to save the environment? Does the limited success of the Kyoto Protocol process suggest that the fossil fuel industry and others can prevent effective climate action? On the other hand, what are we to make of cases such as the Montreal Protocol, which has helped to reverse the manmade trend towards ozone layer depletion? This book is the result of over ten years of research on international environmental politics. It puts forward a distinctive theoretical approach and analytical framework for studying business as an international actor in the environmental field, and provides detailed case studies of three of the most important environmental challenges in recent years: the protection of the ozone layer; the politics of global climate change; and the regulation of agricultural biotechnology.