The 2023 Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) Net Zero Company Benchmark assessed 150 of the world's largest emitters on their net-zero transition. InfluenceMap provided data for the Climate Policy Engagement Alignment assessment using three distinct indicators. Through these indicators, InfluenceMap assesses the alignment of a company’s real-world climate policy engagement with science-aligned benchmarks to achieve 1.5°C warming, as well as the quality and accuracy of corporate disclosures related to climate policy engagement.
Overall, CA100+ target companies performed poorly across all three indicators. Only 4% of CA100+ companies achieved scores indicating alignment with science-based policy pathways for delivering the 1.5°C warming goal of the Paris Agreement on Indicator 1, Real-World Climate Policy Engagement. None of the companies fully met investor expectations for either their climate policy engagement disclosure or review processes (Indicators 2 and 3).
Many focus companies continue to obstruct or undermine ambitious climate policy in their real-world climate policy engagement, either directly or via industry association memberships (Indicator 1). 29% of companies demonstrate climate policy engagement misaligned with science-based pathways to limit warming to 1.5°C.
Despite poor performance, longer-term trends of progress are evident, with best-practice leaders emerging. For example, the majority of target companies now sit in the “partially aligned” category on Indicator 1, Real-World Climate Policy Engagement. In addition, under Indicator 3, Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Review and Misalignment Management, there has been a steady increase in companies submitting reviews, providing a critical foundation for investor engagement. Since the time of the October 2023 Benchmark, Unilever has demonstrated leading practice on Indicator 3, becoming the first company to publish a review that broadly meets InfluenceMap’s assessment criteria.
While there has been an increase in the number of companies reporting on and reviewing their climate policy engagement activities, the majority of these disclosures do not correctly identify climate advocacy that is misaligned with science-based pathways for delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement (Indicators 2 and 3). Most focus companies do not publish a review of their corporate climate policy engagement, and those that do often fail to meet standards put forward by investors under the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying (Indicator 3).
European utility companies perform best across all three indicators. Enel, SSE, and Iberdrola rank the highest for their real-world climate policy engagement, having shown consistent support for a range of ambitious climate policies in the EU, while Enel had the highest rated climate policy engagement review of all companies assessed under the October 2023 Benchmark.
Conversely, companies from fossil fuel sectors continue to drive many of the negative scores under Indicator 1, Real-World Climate Policy Engagement, showing consistent opposition to policies to enable the transition of the energy mix. As such, while several sectors are now evolving their climate policy engagement approach because of shareholder pressure, companies from the fossil fuel value chain have remained more resistant to change.
As we enter proxy season, investors have increased opportunity to push CA100+ companies to improve their climate policy engagement and related disclosures to ensure closer alignment with pathways to limit warming to 1.5°C. Shareholder resolutions allow investors to use their formal rights as owners to publicly escalate salient matters through direct interaction with a company’s board. InfluenceMap’s analysis suggests that such escalation strategies might be warranted to address persistent poor performance across certain focus companies.
InfluenceMap is a research partner to the CA100+ process; company-level data from the LobbyMap platform feeds directly into the CA100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark. Information about LobbyMap's methodology can be found here and an overview of the underlying LobbyMap metrics can be found here. An explanation of how these metrics are used for the CA100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark can be found here.
This briefing explores the results of the 150 target companies assessed by InfluenceMap under the “Alignment Assessment” framework of the October 2023 iteration of the benchmark. Phase 2 of the CA100+ initiative includes assessments of a total of 171 companies, the majority of which are now available on InfluenceMap’s CA100+ Investor Hub. All 171 company assessments will be available in the October 2024 Benchmark.
Indicator 1: Real World Climate Policy Engagement is an assessment of a company’s direct and indirect (via industry associations) real-world climate policy engagement. In the graphic below, companies have been identified as laggards, sector leaders, and overall leaders in the CA100+ benchmark based on their Indicator 1 scores.
Please note that, despite leading relative to other companies in their sector, "Sector Leader" companies have scores that remain partially misaligned with science-based pathways to limit warming to 1.5°C.
Since the 2023 CA100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark, five companies have seen a material change in their score of five points or more under Indicator 1, with more incremental changes for several other companies meaning that they have passed a CA100+ threshold criteria (either upwards or downwards). Download the report at the top of this page for further information on these changes, or alternatively view LobbyMap's live company rankings for the most up-to-date profiles and analysis.
Accurate disclosures of climate policy engagement allow investors to assess the extent to which companies are translating their commitments to responsible climate policy engagement into practice. Indicator 2, Accuracy of Climate Policy Engagement Disclosure, is an assessment of the accuracy of a company’s reporting on its direct and indirect (via industry associations) climate policy engagement activities. In the graphic below, company scores under Indicator 2 have been categorized by sector, with "Sector Leader" companies being showcased on the upper section of the graphic.
Please note that, despite leading relative to other companies in their sector, "Sector Leader" companies have scores that remain partially misaligned with investor expectations outlined in the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying.
Since the 2023 CA100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark, seven companies have seen a change in their scores under Sub-Indicators 2.1 and 2.2, with five companies seeing an improvement in their score and two companies seeing a fall in their score. Download the report at the top of this page for further information on these changes, or alternatively view LobbyMap's up-to-date tracking and assessment scorecards for new CA100+ company climate policy engagement disclosures.
Corporate climate policy engagement reviews provide a mechanism for companies to assess the extent to which their direct and indirect real-world advocacy is aligned with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. Companies are expected to transparently identify misalignments between this goal and their direct and indirect advocacy and detail actions they will take to rectify these misalignments where they arise.
Indicator 3, Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Review and Misalignment Management, is an assessment of the quality and robustness of a company’s corporate climate policy engagement review and misalignment management processes. In the diagram below, company scores under Indicator 3, Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Review and Misalignment Management have been categorized by sector, with '"Sector Leader" companies being shown on the upper section of the graphic.
Please note that, despite leading relative to other companies in their sector, "Sector Leader" companies have scores that remain partially misaligned with investor expectations outlined in the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying.
Since the 2023 CA100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark, five companies have seen a change in their score under Indicator 3, all of which have seen an improvement in their score, including Unilever which has set a new standard for best practice. Download the report at the top of this page for further information on these changes, or alternatively view LobbyMap's up-to-date tracking and assessment scorecards for new CA100+ company climate policy engagement reviews.