Unilever and National Grid labelled ‘true leaders’ in post-Paris policy push

InfluenceMap has released the ‘Tipping point in corporate attitudes to climate policy’ report, revealing that more than half of the leading 100 industrial companies are advocating plans for emissions reductions in line with the ‘well-below’ 2C agreement established at COP21.

Brewing company Anheuser Bush and Spanish utility Iberdrola were also named as ‘true leaders’.

The report highlights how company CEOs such as Unilever’s Paul Polman and Apple’s Tim Cook have driven the attitude change from within the private sector, supporting policies such as the ‘We Mean Business’ campaign and the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.

Nigel Topping, CEO of We Mean Business, said: “The trend of big business actively supporting ambitious climate legislation is important given the influence the corporate sector has over policy globally. This is a good start. We are urging more and more businesses and investors to commit to responsible corporate engagement on climate policy – so that what is now a trend becomes business as usual.”

InfluenceMap called on the ‘silent leaders’ of the climate attitude shift – those that are incorporating sustainable policies but aren’t driving others to do so – to exhibit consistent support for the new policies set in place at COP21.

The categorised ‘silent leaders’ include; Google which is looking to triple renewable energy output through the RE100, Tesla which has founder Elon Musk continuously calling for carbon tax, Nestle which has recently formed a new energy reduction partnership and Apple which is running its entire Singapore operations on renewable energy.

InfluenceMap branded companies in the fossil fuel sector as ‘active laggards’ with ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and Phillips 66 all scoring poorly on policy implementation.

InfluenceMap Post COP21

Fossil fury

InfluenceMap’s detailed company analysis, follows on from consultancy Sigwatch’s report highlighting the companies that received the most praise and criticism from NGOs for 2015.

German car manufacturer Volkswagen was the ‘most disliked’ company thanks largely to the well-documented emissions scandal.  

The report, which monitored the complaints and comments from 7,500 NGOs, also lamented Shell, which received the most complaints for its arctic drilling fiasco. In total nine of the top 20 most criticised companies in the UK were oil, coal or mining companies.

Nestle, Marks & Spencers and McDonald’s were singled out for praise by the NGOs for their ethical commitments.

Consultancy duo GlobeScan and SustainAbility recently polled 600 sustainability experts from business, government, NGOs and academia to find that Unilever and Tesla were considered the main leaders in the climate change battle.

Matt Mace