Vormedal, Irja (2011). States and Markets in Global Environmental Governance: Dynamics and Change in the Regulations of Global Warming

The framework, defined as the Tipping Point Model, seeks to explain why business strategies towards greenhouse gas regulation have shifted from a largely anti-regulatory stand towards more accommodative and supportive approaches since the turn of the century.

The framework specifies three conditions under which corporate strategies may develop from opposition towards regulatory support and entrepreneurship; i) when relevant business actors face a substantial increase in regulatory risks and uncertainty, ii) when corporations operating in global markets face different regulatory requirements (uneven playing fields), and iii) when new regulations create significant market opportunities.The framework identifies the threshold at which a critical mass of the dominant business lobbies begin to support or push for new regulation as a “tipping point” in business strategies. It is argued that the materialization of a tipping point is likely to create more enabling conditions for political bargaining, which may, in turn, generate substantial progress in the political and regulatory process. 

Empirically, the framework is employed to analyze and explain two cases; i) the formation and development of the international climate change regime, and ii) the evolution of climate change politics in the United States. Using a methodology of triangulation, the case studies demonstrate how the tipping point model provides a plausible account of the relationship and dynamics between business strategies and political and regulatory change in both the contexts of the U.S. and the international climate regime.