How US Business Associations Supported Neoliberal Environmentalism and Climate Change Denial (1970–1992)

This paper argues that it is necessary to consider the fundamental role played by business associations in shaping neoliberal environmentalism and contributing to global climate change denial. It examines the ways in which the four main business organizations that represent the interests of multinational companies in the United States—the US Council of International Business, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Roundtable—started in the 1970s to set up organizational units and engaged in a campaign to weaken anti-pollution regulation enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, most notably the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. During the neoliberal era that began after the end of that decade, they increasingly promoted concepts of corporate sustainability and business self-regulation. Organized big business furthermore systematically questioned scientific findings on health consequences of pollution as well as on global warming. It took the lead in establishing the Global Climate Coalition, thereby actively participating in a global campaign of climate change denial. Based on new archival records, the paper deciphers the part these business associations played in the neoliberal environmental turn.