Corporate Governance in a Carbon Constrained World

In the world that we now live in, never has mankind been forced to deal with living and operating business as usual in a carbon constrained world. The essence of the phrase ‘business as usual’ now takes on a new meaning when it is imperative in the 21st century and beyond that business does go on, but in a world where the public, governments, non government organizations, shareholders, investors and all other interested stakeholders demand that in doing so that the environment does not further deteriorate as a consequence of doing ‘business as usual’.In an effort to address these new concerns, that we as a planet are now required to deal with, this paper will outline some of the academic research taking place and in addition add some new ideas and thoughts that are intended to add to the current body of literature.As academics, it is felt that as in other areas of research, that it is incumbent on the academic community to provide leadership in this most vital area of concern to us all and all other species that inhabit the planet with us.Essentially boards of directors, now and in the future will be required to develop individual corporate governance practices that enable their organizations to reduce carbon footprint, by producing greater levels of output, due to the world’s exponential population growth, using less of the inputs that impact adversely on the environment and more of the inputs that impact positively on the environment.