The conclusion argues that the book demonstrates the emerging importance of private climate initiatives, develops a plausible theory of why private actors are motivated to reduce emissions, and makes a persuasive case that annual greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by a billion tons or more within the next decade.
The most important step is for experts and anyone interested in climate change to recognize the potential of private climate governance. The conclusion also notes that the growth of private climate governance has implications for efforts to address other problems that arise on a global scale and that confront obstacles not contemplated by the early framers of governments around the world. The themes that run through the book, including not assuming that government is the only actor, not assuming that responses pose either-or-choices, and comparing governance options to viable alternatives, suggest how the response to climate change and other global problems can draw on new conceptions of what governance is and how it could or should be analyzed and structured. For climate change, an adequate government response will not occur over the next decade, but private initiatives can buy time for the development and implementation of an adequate government response.