As major companies evolve their climate-related corporate and policy engagement practices to meet the demands of investors, the nation’s largest publicly traded companies are increasingly lobbying for policies that will help the U.S. achieve its commitments under the Paris Agreement. However, very few are publicly reckoning with the role of their own trade associations in obstructing climate action.
The report, Responsible Policy Engagement Analysis 2022: How Companies Are—and Aren’t—Leading on Climate Policy, examines the climate-related risk management, governance and lobbying practices of more than 100 S&P 100 companies. (The report analyzed 104 companies that comprised the S&P 100 during 2021 and 2022.) It found significant progress compared to last year in the number of large, publicly traded companies advocating for climate action, as half of the benchmarked companies lobbied in support of at least one Paris-aligned climate policy during the last three years.