Financing technological improvements and firm competitive advantage through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A Latin American example

For nations of the global south there has been an overall dismissal of emissions reduction practices surrounding global warming, and perhaps rightfully so. Developed countries have been identified as the primary contributor towards the climate change issue, and many countries perceive that the curbing of emissions will lead to the stagnation of economic growth and prosperity. For developing nations, embracing emission reductions or carbon emission offsets appear to make little sense if in fact such actions would result in the economic contraction expected. However, we suggest that the climate change issue, although perceived as an obstacle to growth and prosperity, holds several strategic competitive advantages for first movers. Three factors are discussed regarding first mover advantage and we use the energy industry of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region as our example.