FRONTLINE Heat is a global report on what is being done by the world’s largest corporations and governments to respond to the challenges posed by climate change and to the call for reductions in carbon emissions. The program takes viewers to the world’s largest coal mine, oil refinery, and off-shore oil rig as well as America’s biggest utility companies and car manufacturers to explore the technological, political, and economic challenges facing global corporations.

In this video case study and corresponding business module, students are asked to consider how industries and governments are responding to climate change through a set of key themes, discussion questions and a classroom exercises. Students will present solutions to the challenging problems posed in the module.

In Corporations or Consumers: Who Is Responsible?, we examine this case through the lens of Shenua Energy in China. China produces the dirtiest energy on the planet in order to feed its expanding massive industrial base. China’s growth is fueled by American’s consumerist desires for inexpensive products and the Chinese desire for Western lifestyles. While the world blames China for its pollution, this Business Module asks students to consider who is really responsible for making changes in China to protect the planet.

Key Video Segment Themes:

• The rise of China threatens to overwhelm any reality of controlling CO2 emissions.
• China logically refuses to aspire to a lower standard than the West.
• China is the manufacturer of goods that the U.S. consumes – so who is really responsible for the pollution: the producers or the consumers?
• Shenhua Energy Corp nearly doubled its energy capacity in 2007 over 2006 and expects to continue to grow 20-30% over the next five years.
• Shenhua Energy Corp CEO, Dr. Ling Wen says, “My responsibility is first to the shareholders, second to society.” He argues that he is the CEO of a public company and hence he must do as the shareholders want.