Institutional Entrepreneurship in the Creation of Multistakeholder Governance Fields for Climate Change: The Case of the Corporate Climate Disclosure Field

Efforts to coordinate meaningful international action on climate change have long been hindered by resistance from governments and fossil fuel companies. Nonetheless, a complex ecosystem of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and financial institutions has emerged to advance corporate accountability for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper addresses two objectives. First, it draws on theories of organizational field emergence to explore how institutional entrepreneurs can establish organizational fields aimed at mitigating climate change. Second, it examines the rise of a specific multistakeholder governance field around climate disclosure, wherein public and private organizations collaborate to compel companies to report standardized climate-related data to financial regulators and investors. Central to this emerging field are NGOs supported by financial institutions, including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the World Resources Institute (WRI), Ceres, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). These organizations have developed frameworks prompting corporations to track and disclose emissions. Over time, this new field gained legitimacy as climate disclosure was integrated into global financial governance. By tracing this trajectory, this paper demonstrates how institutional entrepreneurship and multistakeholder governance converge to form new organizational fields around corporate environmental responsibility.