Special issue on climate change and the emergence of new organizational landscapes

Climate change poses unique and profound challenges to organizations of every type, prompting a variety of organizational responses. The drastic depth of cuts in emissions of greenhouse gasses proposed by many governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is likely to require radical and fundamental shifts in socio-political structures, technological and economic systems, organizational forms, and modes of organizing (Hoffman 2005; Okereke 2007; Wittneben 2007). As a result, climate change is not just an environmental problem requiring technical and managerial solutions; it is a political arena in which a variety of organizations – state agencies, firms, industry associations, NGOs, and multilateral organizations – engage in contestation as well as collaboration over evolving regimes of governance (Levy and Egan 2003; Levy and Newell 2005). There is therefore an urgent need to better comprehend and theorize the transformative impact of climate change on the organizational landscape. This special issue aims to further our theoretical and empirical understanding of organizational implications of climate change. This includes the organizational impact of disruptive climate patterns and the evolving global and local policy response to the phenomenon as well as the opportunities and limits of current modes of organising on climate stabilization.