Who Built Emissions Trading? A Longitudinal Mapping of Transnational Business Coalition, 2002–2025

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Energy, Communication, and Public Opinion

Abstract

Emissions trading has become one of the most widely adopted climate policy instruments, yet its persistence cannot be explained solely by policy design or environmental effectiveness. This paper shifts attention from regulatory outcomes to the organizational foundations that sustain market-based climate governance. Drawing on the concept of instrument constituencies, we examine how transnational business networks have contributed to the construction and stabilization of emissions trading over time. Using a novel longitudinal dataset of International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) membership spanning 2002–2025, we map changes in the geographic, sectoral, and governance composition of a central organizational hub in global carbon markets. Results show that IETA developed from a geographically concentrated transatlantic coalition into a more regionally diversified organizational field, even as North America and Western Europe remained its institutional core. The instrument constituencies evolved from a relatively narrow coalition of energy and industrial firms into a heterogeneous and increasingly intermediary-driven organizational field. While overall membership expanded and diversified—particularly through the growth of financial institutions, consultancies, and standards organizations—board governance exhibited greater continuity, with incumbent industrial actors retaining disproportionate influence. These findings complicate dominant critiques of carbon markets that presume linear financialization driven by abstract market forces. By providing rare longitudinal evidence on the evolution of a policy instrument’s social base, the paper contributes to sociological debates on transnational governance, market construction, and the institutionalization of climate policy.

Authors

• John Chung-En Liu, National Taiwan University

• Genet Yan Heng Yu, National Taiwan University