Abstract

Development of carbon neutral energy sources is essential if the US is to reduce the release of greenhouse gases and the associated potential for global climate change. In the US a few giant corporations dominate the energy sector. Furthermore, there has been virtually no federal leadership on energy issues, and the awareness of the issues by the general public, let alone their understanding of them, is low. In Europe, the energy sector is also dominated by a few players, but the higher awareness of the public, the long lasting efforts of NGOs and other stakeholders, in addition to the mandatory regulations (both at a national and an European level) has created a different “energy landscape”. Even in Europe, the current and pending reductions in CO2 emissions are still far short of what is required and the level of understanding of the issues by the public is still relatively low on both continents. In this paper, we identify and discuss the main politicalchallenges and drivers in the energy and climate debate, and we point out that while the energy sector has no interest to tackle greenhouse gas emissions without significantly greater public pressure, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in this sector could nonetheless play a key role in changing US energy policy, but at the same time is very unlikely to be sufficient by itself