The impacts of climate change not only pose financial and material risks to companies and industries, but also systemic risk to financial markets writ large. Given the nature of this risk, all corporate action—including corporate lobbying—should be proportional to the risk faced and aligned with the latest science on climate change. Yet Ceres’ recent assessment of 96 large U.S.-based companies reveals that many companies are misaligned with their climate lobbying. Only 40% of the assessed companies have engaged directly with lawmakers on the importance of specific science-based climate policies and only a handful are assessing and acting on misalignments found within their trade associations. Investors recognize that misaligned corporate lobbying poses an investment risk, and have boosted engagements to encourage companies to better manage this risk. The results of the 2021 Proxy season underscore this, with shareholders winning majority votes on Paris-Aligned climate lobbying proposals at five major corporations.
In this session, participants will:
Examine growing investor expectations on corporate climate lobbying
Identify how corporate systems can better align direct and indirect lobbying with climate risk assessments
Explore opportunities that publicly advocate for science-based climate policy
Evaluate how trade association engagement could be used to make a positive impact on climate policy
Speakers:
Moderator: Anne Kelly, Vice President, Government Relations, Ceres
Jake Barnett, Director, Sustainable Investment Services, Wespath Institutional Investments
Lio Barrera, Director, Government & Public Affairs, LafargeHolcim
Stefani Millie Grant, Senior Manager, External Affairs and Sustainability, Unilever