Regulatory Pressure and Competitive Dynamics: Carbon Management Strategies of UK Energy-Intensive Companies

Corporate climate strategies are shaped by a complex interplay of various market and non-market factors. This article investigates the impact of two principal drivers—competitive dynamics and regulatory pressure—on the carbon management strategies of some of the most energy-intensive UK-listed companies. Despite significant increase in awareness of its potential strategic importance, so far there is little in the approaches of these organizations to suggest that climate change has strongly altered the competitive field or induced radical transformations in the business models of UK carbon-intensive companies. Instead, strategy appears to consist of a series of hedging practices that derive from perceptions of present and likely future market and political trends in relation to climate change.