Taking Actions to Deal with Climate Change Risks and Opportunities: Harnessing Superordinate Identities to Promote Knowledge Transfer and Creation
The reciprocal influence between climate change and corporations is undeniable. On the one hand, human actions have an irrefutable impact on the environment, one of the most dangerous examples being the correlation between increased carbon emissions and temperature extremes (Solomon, Plattner, Knutti, et al. 2009) As primary actors in the global economy, corporations represent a significant portion of human impact on the environment. Corporate carbon emissions, for example, result from activities including manufacturing, resource harvesting, business travel, and building occupancy (Environmental Information Administration, 2011) On the other hand, climate change influences corporations by increasing uncertainty, instability, and risk. Such risks include difficulties with crop production caused by temperature variation and fluctuations in water supply; shifts in regional weather patterns and heightened potential for natural disasters (Stern, 2007) and increased costs of heating, cooling, and maintaining air quality (Mickley, Jacob, and Field, 2004) The magnitude of this influence is so significant that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has issued interpretive guidance for publicly held companies on disclosing to investors any serious risks that climate change poses to their operations (Securities and Exchange Commission, 2010)