InfluenceMap

🌱 🏅Climate policy leadership can incentivize faster climate action, unlock investment and level the playing field for those leading the race to zero emissions.    Last week our Australia Program Manager Jack Herring was joined by Climate Integrity, Better Futures Australia and the Electric Vehicle Council at an online Race to Zero event to discuss how supportive climate policy engagement from non-state actors can drive ambitious climate policy in Australia.  InfluenceMap’s previous Australia research (https://lnkd.in/ei8rK5kv) has indicated that companies with more obstructive overall climate policy engagement are more likely to actively engage on policy than companies with more supportive positions.   By adopting a proactive and constructive voice in public policymaking, and increasing transparency around corporate climate policy advocacy - both individually and through industry associations - companies can counterbalance the oppositional lobbying of the fossil fuel value chain. This would provide policymakers with ample evidence of business buy-in for the climate solutions that will enable the successful realization of their own transition pathways.     You can find InfluenceMap’s latest briefing on steps companies can take towards climate policy leadership here (https://lnkd.in/ejD4uFyw). A good summary of additional resources and toolkits can be found in We Mean Business' Framework for Responsible Policy Engagement (https://lnkd.in/eWQn_Hpv) and Race to Zero and the Exponential Roadmap Initiative’s Business Associations Climate Action Guide (https://lnkd.in/ewCvf8e2).     For those who could not make it, you can access the recording here (https://lnkd.in/eDwBBidy) (passcode: Py?qU87t). For further resources and best-practice guidance on corporate climate policy disclosures and reviews from InfluenceMap, see here (https://lnkd.in/eFZ68cci)

  📢 NEW from InfluenceMap: 50 Years of Consistent Oil & Gas Advocacy Against Renewables and Electric Vehicles   💥 Our new report, published today, finds that some of the world’s most powerful oil and gas associations - The American Petroleum Institute (API), Fuels Europe and Fuels Industry UK - have been using the same playbook of narratives to delay the global energy transition since as early as 1967 💥   In May this year, the US Budget Committee held a hearing entitled 'Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts to Avoid, Accountability for Climate Change'. This showed more clearly than ever that oil and gas companies have known about the negative impacts of their industry on the climate for the last 50 years.   This report can now add a detailed analysis of the narratives that were developed - as early as the 1960s - to safeguard the industry, and how entrenched they have become in the pro-fossil fuel playbook.    The three key narratives we identify are:   🛢️Affordability and Energy Security 🛢️Policy Neutrality 🛢️Solution Scepticism   The report also challenges the claim made by the fossil fuel industry that consumer demand for oil and gas is ‘outside their control’ by demonstrating the significant and longstanding role the obstructive narratives have played in fuelling demand for their products. Tessa Khan, Exectutive Director of Uplift said in response to the report: "This report shows that even faced with mounting scientific evidence over decades, the oil and gas industry have pushed ahead with a damaging messaging strategy they developed as early as the 1960s. It shows the crucial need for increased awareness of the delaying tactics of fossil fuel companies from policymakers if they are to successfully drive the energy transition forward at the pace we need.”   Some more key findings:   🔺 In the US, the API are using these same arguments in many of their recent legal challenges to progressive climate policy - such as their challenge to the EPA tailpipe emission standards. 🔺 In Europe, the associations’ have shifted their tactics over time and begun to use these narratives in more nuanced efforts to ensure support for technology neutral policies, which may still leave room for fossil fuel products. Simultaneously, they continue to use these narratives to oppose policies that solely promote EV or renewable solutions. 🔺 Shell and BP seem to be operating a ‘dual advocacy’ approach on climate, making some positive climate commitments, such as publicly supporting the electrification of light duty vehicles and the phase out of internal combustion engine vehicles, whilst retaining membership of - and paying significant membership fees to - associations that have advocated for 50 years to weaken or halt these same policies.    Read our findings in full: https://lnkd.in/gFAJtgYw   Dylan Tanner Tom Holen Ed Collins Kitty Hatchley Dario Kenner

Join our Australia Program Manager Jack Herring this Wednesday, where he'll be outlining the climate policy engagement landscape in Australia and sharing steps non-state actors can take towards climate policy leadership 🌏 👇 Sign up to attend here: https://lnkd.in/dwdGk7bz Explore our Australia platform: https://lnkd.in/ebJtewyp High-Level Climate Champions Better Futures Australia Climate Integrity WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Today we're thrilled to see the launch of @ClimateArc's #TransitionArc - a one-stop #ClimateFinance tool to assess corporate transitions towards climate goals 🌎 This is a huge opportunity for greater transparency and accountability for companies on how they're contributing to the #ClimateTransition. It's a unique collaboration between world-leading data and analysis providers, including InfluenceMap, Carbon Tracker, Corporate Knights, Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) , World Benchmarking Alliance, CDP, Global Canopy, Science Based Targets initiative, and The International Council on Clean Transportation. Brought together for the first time in the public domain, companies can be assessed across five key metrics: ➡️ GHG performance ➡️ Climate targets ➡️ Capital allocation ➡️ Governance ➡️ Policy engagement #TransitionArc will empower financial institutions, companies and policy-makers to accelerate the #ClimateTransition by unlocking climate finance at the speed and scale needed to meet climate goals. Register here to access the tool: https://brnw.ch/21wKNgD Read the coverage in Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/eQN_uiH6 Dylan Tanner Ed Collins

🌎 🔎 “To Accelerate Climate Action, We Need to Talk About Lobbying” Read the words of InfluenceMap's Dylan Tanner and We Mean Business Coalition's Andrew Prag in the Financial Times' Sustainable Views this week – 🗣 “Ensuring proactive and science-aligned climate policy engagement is an essential part of a smart business approach to climate action. Companies with the necessary resources and presence of mind can pre-empt future regulatory requirements and meet investor expectations with robust disclosure now, but governments have a huge role to play in making it easy for all companies to do so.” For us, it's a huge privilege to have space in the packed media landscape to lay out - 🚀 what we’re striving for 🌱 why it’s fundamental to reaching science-aligned targets 🤝 and how we think government and businesses can work together to get there Even in the time since this piece was written, we have seen more momentum in favor of change. Namely, in the publication of Exponential Roadmap Initiative's 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 which we were so pleased to be able to support with our data and resources. This guide will be invaluable for companies who want to be those ‘first movers’ and align the associations they’re members of with strong climate ambition. The next steps must be incorporating the existing benchmarks and best practice guides into binding frameworks that are recognized nationally and internationally. As the article concludes: “Given the irrefutable benefits to business and the planet, governments have no excuse not to step up to the regulatory challenge.” Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eFmXa5G5 Read the Business Association’s Climate Action Guide: https://lnkd.in/ewCvf8e2

🚨 New from InfluenceMap 🚨 Our first Steel Climate Policy Engagement Roundup of 2024 is live ! According to the IEA the steel sector contributes 7% of energy sector greenhouse gas emissions – so how is this vital sector engaging with the energy transition and policies to accelerate it in 2024? This issue includes: 🏗 A deep dive into Nippon Steel’s negative advocacy groundwork ahead of next years’ revision of Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan –despite the significant shareholder pressure they’ve faced this year to address their climate lobbying 🏗The missing link in Chinese steel companies’ hydrogen-based steel production advocacy: a significant lack of support for decarbonizing hydrogen 🏗And more details on how the steel sector is engaging with Australia’s Carbon Leakage Review Read the full briefing here: https://lnkd.in/er2SWgkn

“At InfluenceMap we consistently find that across all sectors and regions, industry associations are among the most obstructive actors on climate policy. Individual companies urgently need to call out and push back on this behavior if they are going to make meaningful strides to align their business and Net Zero plans with science aligned climate goals." - Dylan Tanner, Executive Director & Co-founder Hugely pleased to have contributed to this new Business Associations Climate Action Guide, an important resource for business associations that want to lead the way on climate policy engagement. Take a look: https://lnkd.in/dJaCPSTD

  💥 NEW From InfluenceMap: The meat and dairy industry lobbying that is pressing pause on climate legislation in the EU...   This report tracks the advocacy of the ten largest meat and dairy companies in Europe, and the five biggest industry associations, and looks at six EU policies aimed at tackling GHG emissions in the sector. The report finds that following intense lobbying from industry players: 🐄  2 out of 6 policies were significantly weakened 🐑  3 out of 6 appear to have stalled completely 🐥 This includes the ‘flagship’ EU Sustainable Food Systems Framework and the Industrial Emissions Directive   It shows how actors in the meat and dairy sector have established two key narratives to frame how it is perceived by consumers and policymakers, mirroring the tactics of the fossil fuel industry. These are:   🐖 Emphasizing the importance of livestock for society 🐖 Distancing livestock from being viewed as a driver of climate change   These narratives appear repeatedly in consultation responses, public statements, and social media produced by the meat and dairy sector – as well as in direct communication between the entities assessed in this report and an EU Commissioner. They are also repeatedly used by members of the European People’s Party, both in the EU Commission and EU Parliament. This betrays the close relationship between industry and policymakers, suggesting an element of corporate capture in this space. All of the narratives used stand in contradiction to the latest science-based recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2022 and 2019 reports and the 2019 EAT-Lancet study. "Corporations and industry have a critical role in addressing climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, but this report clearly highlights that expert advice and recommendations are being drowned out and watered-down by self-serving advocates." - Chris Packham, TV Broadcaster and Environmental Campaigner Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/eaY3fKv4 Dylan Tanner Ed Collins Venetia Roxburgh Jennifer Gullery Chris Packham Kitty Hatchley  

InfluenceMap’s February 2024 analysis of lobbying responses to Australia’s Future Gas Strategy (FGS) by the largest fossil fuel and utility companies in Australia indicated that the strategy was at risk of being captured by the fossil fuel value chain. We can now see that fossil fuel capture of the FGS has taken place: The finalized strategy recycles several of the misleading and inaccurate industry narratives that were used in industry responses to promote a prolonged role for fossil gas through to 2050 and beyond. Read our February 2024 analysis: https://lnkd.in/e5gHhMGc Read our latest analysis of fossil fuel lobbying on Australia’s Future Gas Strategy: https://lnkd.in/dpwPfHNb