Climate Action Response Plans in Firms: Exploring the Characteristics of Firms Planning for a More Sustainable Future

Firm-level Climate Action Response Plans (CARPs) comprise firms' climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments. Encouraging firms to develop CARPs is thus vital for meeting ever-pressing climate goals. Understanding the resources and capabilities facilitating firms to develop CARPs can inform evidence-based approaches to accelerate firms' climate efforts. Using Ireland as our empirical laboratory and drawing on novel and highly detailed data, we explore the characteristics that distinguish firms that develop and do not develop CARPs. We find that firms developing CARPs (1) exhibit strong market performance, in terms of productivity and sales, (2) engage in international markets, (3) are highly R&D and innovation active and (4) already use digital technologies. Our findings suggest that firms may require high levels of resources and capabilities when designing CARPs to respond and adapt to climate change. Our paper offers new insights for business strategy and policy regarding using CARPs to guide climate efforts by firms.