State-business relations in the green transition

Caroline Ahler Christesen and Milan Babić

Chapter 47 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Business and Government, 2026, pp 274-280 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: State-business relations are key to propel green transitions, but they are often also an impediment when it comes to issues like decarbonization. While most governments want to build a sustainable future, de facto rising emissions and accelerating biodiversity loss suggest that we are globally speaking off track. What are the different modi of state-business interactions that influence sustainability transformations? In this entry, we review the main ways in which states or governments and corporations interact in green transitions. We identify three major roles that corporations play: they can be inhibitors, instruments or innovators when it comes to sustainability transformations. We explain each of those ideal types and give relevant examples. The heuristic we develop to think about state-business relations in the green transition can be used to inform research designs and make sense of variation of these relations across countries, within industries or among single corporations and other actors.

Keywords: Green transition; Political economy; States; Corporations; Environmental politics; Investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035307777
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