Business responses to climate change: strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Vietnam

Abstract

This study identifies the climate change strategies adopted by firms in developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. First, a framework is developed to classify and assess the GHG emission strategies of companies; second, it is then improved by using data on their implementation collected from 185 companies operating in 10 energy-intensive industries in Vietnam. We find that multinational subsidiaries engage in various climate change activities and have a higher level of implementation than those of domestic firms. Further, the most active and proactive companies are large in size and from Europe, the United States and Japan.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• climate change strategy
• environmental management
• greenhouse gas emissions
• Vietnam

Notes

1. Corresponding to the measurement scales in Table 1, the mean values were interpreted as follows: a value of four and higher reflects ongoing implementation; a value between 3 and 4 refers to the early implementation stage; and a value lower than three is considered to be a potential activity only.

2. The average mean value in this research is 2.234 (Appendix 5); a value higher (lower) than 2.234 refers to an above average (below-average) mean value.