Climate Responsibilities of Business Corporations

ABSTRACT Climate change is reshaping society's moral expectations of business corporations. Its increasing threat to ecological stability and intergenerational well‐being has propelled corporations, once viewed solely as economic entities, into the forefront of climate‐justice debates. This Advanced Review surveys scholarly developments, mainly from the early 2000s to 2025, on the ethical principles, institutional structures, and practical performance of corporate climate responsibility. Focusing on traditional distributive factors, such as causality and capacity, along with the emerging importance of collaboration, the article examines how the literature addresses corporate responsibility in climate issues. It differentiates between corporations as secondary justice agents or market‐driven actors, whose duties involve mitigation, and primary agents or political actors, tasked with influencing regulations, advocating responsibly, and addressing systemic inequalities. The review clarifies the spectrum of interventions and evaluation metrics while exploring conflicts between profit motives and sustainability. It concludes by outlining a future research agenda at the intersection of political philosophy, business ethics, and climate ethics. This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Ethics and Climate Change Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Human Rights Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Global Justice