I watched Goodman's interview with HBS Professor Henderson regarding corporations and their decision making with regard to climate change. I think that my biggest takeaway from this interview is the overall theme of large institutions having a difficult time responding to relatively immediate problems. It was interesting to learn about the free rider problem and the issue where corporations are incentivized to let other institutions deal with the issues of climate change rather than tackle the issue themselves. I think this mindset shared by corporations will continue to lead to potential missed gains in the fight for handling climate change. I agree with Henderson that it would be nice to see corporations come forward and fight for regulation, as this would help alleviate the free rider issue. This would be similar to what happened with refrigerator companies who fought for regulation with CFCs which led to a successful mitigation of the erosion of our ozone layer.
Link to interview: 1. Corporations and Climate - LabXchange
This is a really interesting perspective on the interview and similar to mine when briefly looking it over. Large institutions often have trouble responding quickly in difficult times and responding thoughtfully. The work often gets pushed off and onto another institution or organization because of the free rider problem you mentioned.