Climatic Change (2015) 132:157–171 161 (Gunningham et al 2004). Corporations engaged in mining, pulp and paper manufacturing and the marketing of soy, beef and palm oil have responded to such pressures to go beyond compliance with legal standards for environmental and social sustainability (Gunningham et al. 2004; Prno and Slocombe 2012; Nepstad et al. 2014). In effect, these companies have recognized that they must have a social license to operate. Turning to fossil fuels, some producers acknowledge that their ability to conduct business also requires a social license. Royal Dutch Shell, for example, has recently affirmed that Breal or perceived failures of governance or regulatory compliance could harm our reputation. This could impact our licence to operate, damage our brand, harm our ability to secure new resources and limit our ability to access the capital market.^ Shell has also claimed to embrace the principle of sustainable development, which, they suggest Bis a licence to operate imperative^ (Royal Dutch Shell plc 2010, 2014). Shell implicitly acknowledges that the fiduciary requirement of returning value to shareholders does not absolve corporations of broader ethical responsibilities. History affirms that conclusion. A corporation’s ability to return value to shareholders is influenced by, and in the long run depends upon, social license. 3 Quantifying the responsibility of industrial carbon producers An enormous quantity of emissions can be traced to a relatively small number of fossil fuel producers. Heede (2014) analyzed historic production records of the ninety largest producers of coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as cement, from 1854 to 2010, calculating the carbon content of their marketed fuels (subtracting for non-energy uses), process CO2 from cement manufacturing, CO2 from direct flaring, venting, and fuel use, and fugitive or vented methane. Of total emissions of industrial CO2 and methane from 1751 to 2010, 63 % were traced to 83 of the world’s largest producers of coal, oil and natural gas, and seven largest manufacturers of cement. That is to say, only 90 entities have produced all the fossil energy and cement responsible for 63 % of the world’s industrial emissions of CO2 and methane; 29 % of these emissions have been traced to just 20 investor and state-owned companies (Fig. 2). 4 Response of industrial carbon producers to the evidence of anthropogenic climate change Sustained scientific discussion of anthropogenic climate change can be traced to the 1950s, with a number of reports in the 1960s and 1970s suggesting that it could become a significant social and economic problem (NRC 1979; Oreskes 2004; Fleming 2005). In 1988, climate change went from a prediction to an observation, when NASA scientist James Hansen testified in the U.S. Congress that the human signal in climate change had been detected (Hansen et al. 1988). Hansen’s testimony was reported on the front page of The New York Times, which concluded that the Bissue of an overheating world had suddenly moved to the forefront of public opinion^ (Wilford 1988). Members of the U.S. Congress introduced H.R. 5380, The National Energy Policy Act of 1988, intended to Bestablish a national energy policy that will quickly reduce the generation of carbon dioxide and [other] trace gases as quickly as is feasible in order to slow the pace and degree of atmospheric warming…to protect the global environment.” Then-Vice President George H.W. Bush ran for president of the United States pledging to combat the Bgreenhouse effect with the White House effect^ (New York Times Editorial