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Report:
Unilever, Tesla, Nestlé Among Biggest Corporate Advocates for Climate Policy

Companies including Apple, Google and IKEA earned top spots in a new ranking of the top 20 business leaders calling for more ambitious climate policy across the globe. To make the A-List of Climate Policy Engagement, companies must showcase sectoral leadership, be vocal in calling for ambitious policies and align these calls with their own strategic activities.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 7 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Companies including Apple, Google and IKEA earned top spots in a new ranking of the top 20 business leaders calling for more ambitious climate policy across the globe. To make the A-List of Climate Policy Engagement, companies must showcase sectoral leadership, be vocal in calling for ambitious policies and align these calls with their own strategic activities.

Non-profit InfluenceMap created the list based on data examined in its ongoing analysis of corporate influence over climate policy. Over 30,000 pieces of evidence on 300 global companies and 75 leading trade associations were reviewed to calculate a ‘Total Score’ that expresses how supportive or obstructive the company is towards state/national/regional climate policy aligned with the Paris Agreement, including an analysis of its trade association links, and the firm’s ‘Engagement Intensity,’ which expresses the intensity of this activity, whether positive or negative.

The highest Total Scores were earned by Apple (94), IKEA (91), Tesla (89), and GSK (88). Each with the next highest score of 86 were Unilever and utility companies EDP and EnBW. Fellow European utility companies SSE (85), National Grid (80), Iberdola (73) and Enel (73) also received strong scores, along with American tech firms Amazon (83) and Google (74), and food and beverage firms Coca-Cola (79) and Nestlé (74). Chemical and industrial firms AkzoNobel (71), Royal DSM (69), ABB (67) and Siemens (65) rounded out the list. Several of these companies benefited from strong CEO involvement on climate – Unilever’s Paul Polman, Apple’s Tim Cook and DSM’s Feike Sijbesma stood out.

Ties to trade associations or lobby groups that oppose climate policy had a negative influence on a company’s ranking and could disqualify it all together. Such links held back Microsoft, Nissan, Honda, and Moller Maersk. For example, Microsoft has a strong network of powerful cross-sector trade groups opposing climate policy such as the US Chamber of Commerce, which Apple has publicly denounced on climate.

InfluenceMap plans to update the list biannually, next in September 2018 with an additional 10 companies likely added.

The A-List of Climate Policy Engagement complements InfluenceMap’s efforts to identify the 50 companies most influential in shaping climate and energy policy around the world, which culminated in a report published in September.