IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v12y2022i2d10.1007_s13412-021-00735-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are fossil fuel CEOs responsible for climate change? Social structure and criminal law approaches to climate litigation

Author

Listed:
  • Ryan Gunderson

    (Miami University)

  • Claiton Fyock

    (University of Leicester)

Abstract

Some argue that climate change-related harms are criminal harms, and that fossil fuel corporations and/or their CEOs are liable. Targeting wrongs perpetrated by fossil fuel industry CEOs individualizes the causes of climate change and presumes that punishing an individual or a group of bad actors will provide part of the solution to climate change. However, the primary driver of climate change is the system of capitalism as a total mode of production. The actions of CEOs are considerably shaped and constrained by this system—they are cogs in its machinery. Realizing the radical changes necessary to tackle the climate crisis requires rigorous examination of how the structure of contemporary capitalism perpetuates environmental degradation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Gunderson & Claiton Fyock, 2022. "Are fossil fuel CEOs responsible for climate change? Social structure and criminal law approaches to climate litigation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(2), pages 378-385, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:12:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-021-00735-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-021-00735-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-021-00735-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-021-00735-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebastian Beer & Ruud de Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review Of The Channels, Magnitudes, And Blind Spots," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 660-688, July.
    2. Sabrina McCormick & Robert L. Glicksman & Samuel J. Simmens & LeRoy Paddock & Daniel Kim & Brittany Whited, 2018. "Strategies in and outcomes of climate change litigation in the United States," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(9), pages 829-833, September.
    3. Brett Clark & Daniel Auerbach & Stefano B. Longo, 2018. "The bottom line: capital’s production of social inequalities and environmental degradation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 562-569, December.
    4. Seth H. Werfel, 2017. "Household behaviour crowds out support for climate change policy when sufficient progress is perceived," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 512-515, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fuest, Clemens & Hugger, Felix & Neumeier, Florian, 2022. "Corporate profit shifting and the role of tax havens: Evidence from German country-by-country reporting data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 454-477.
    2. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu, 2024. "Total factor productivity and tax avoidance: An asymmetric micro-data analysis for European oil and gas companies," Working Papers 2024.15, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    3. Kristian S. Nielsen & Kimberly A. Nicholas & Felix Creutzig & Thomas Dietz & Paul C. Stern, 2021. "The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(11), pages 1011-1016, November.
    4. Franz Reiter & Dominika Langenmayr & Svea Holtmann, 2021. "Avoiding taxes: banks’ use of internal debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(3), pages 717-745, June.
    5. Becker, Johannes & Wilson, John D., 2023. "Tax competition with two tax instruments — and tax base erosion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    6. Lupu Mihai, 2024. "Transfer Pricing in the Post-BEPS Era: the BEPS Package, as a Tool in Helping Tax Authorities Prevent Aggressive Tax Optimization in a Specific Sector. Case Study: the IT Industry in Romania," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 142-153.
    7. Phu Nguyen-Van & Anne Stenger & Tuyen Tiet, 2021. "Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors: A meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Alessio Anzuini & Elena Pisano & Luca Rossi & Alessandra Sanelli & Enrico Tosti & Ernesto Zangari, 2023. "Clever planning or unfair play? Exploring the economic and statistical impacts of tax avoidance by multinationals," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 799, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Janský, Petr, 2024. "Profit shifting of multinational corporations worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Nadia Accoto & Stefano Federico & Giacomo Oddo, 2023. "Trade in services related to intangibles and the profit shifting hypothesis," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1414, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    11. O'Dell, Dallas & Contu, Davide & Shreedhar, Ganga, 2025. "Public support for degrowth policies and sufficiency behaviours in the United States: a discrete choice experiment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126084, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Simon Loretz & Margit Schratzenstaller-Altzinger, 2019. "Der EU-Vorschlag zur Harmonisierung der Körperschaftsteuer. Auswirkungen für Österreich," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 92(1), pages 61-71, January.
    13. Cláudia Braz & Maria Manuel Campos & Sónia Cabral, 2022. "A micro-level analysis of corporate income taxation in Portugal," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    14. Müller, Raphael & Spengel, Christoph & Vay, Heiko, 2020. "On the determinants and effects of corporate tax transparency: Review of an emerging literature," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-063, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Gamannossi degl’Innocenti, Duccio & Levaggi, Rosella & Menoncin, Francesco, 2022. "Tax avoidance and evasion in a dynamic setting," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 443-456.
    16. Jae-Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2022. "Political Trust and Support for a Tax Increase for Social Welfare: The Role of Perceived Tax Burden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-12, June.
    17. Hayato Kato & Hirofumi Okoshi, 2022. "Economic Integration And Agglomeration Of Multinational Production With Transfer Pricing," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1325-1355, August.
    18. Arjan Lejour & Jan Möhlmann & Maarten van 't Riet & Thijs Benschop, 2019. "Dutch Shell Companies and International Tax Planning," CPB Discussion Paper 402, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. Katarzyna Bilicka & Evgeniya Dubinina & Petr Janský, 2022. "Fiscal consequences of corporate tax avoidance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-97, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Joana Garcia, 2022. "Multinationals and services imports from havens: when policies stand in the way of tax planning," Working Papers w202214, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:12:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-021-00735-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.