Scored evidence collected on an entity's engagement with land-use and circular economy policy will now be fully weighted into the final calculations for each entity's metrics. This follows a two year process where InfluenceMap has evolved its methodology to collect evidence on corporate and industry engagement with these key areas of climate-related policy.
We have strengthened the algorithm for discounting the impact older evidence on an organization's top-line metrics. Evidence from within the last two years is weighted the strongest and then gradually weighted out of the scoring calculations as it gets older. All evidence that is 5 years or older is completely removed from the scoring calculations. Users will still be able to view older evidence items that are archived the scoring matrix below, but these will not be impacting the organization's current scores.
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE Group) appears to be mostly negatively engaged on climate change policy, including negative engagement on climate-related policy in the EU. The company also appears to have actively opposed a rapid phase-out of coal in Europe.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: PGE Group appears to take negative positions on climate policy in its top-line communications. The CEO of PGE Group, Wojciech Dąbrowski, appeared to emphasize the importance of security of the economy to advocate a less urgent approach to climate change in a tweet in May 2023 and appeared unsupportive of climate policy due to loss of economic competitiveness in a tweet in January 2023. The company also appeared to advocate for a less ambitious response to climate change in a consultation response in June 2023.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: PGE Group appears to hold negative positions on emissions trading, GHG emissions regulation and legislation and measures for protecting and enhancing carbon sinks and reservoirs in the EU. The company appeared unsupportive of a broad range of measures that would increase the stringency of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) post-2030, including not supporting expansion to cover other sectors in a consultation response on the EU Climate Target for 2040 in June 2023. In the same response PGE advocated for relying on nature-based carbon removals over GHG emissions reductions in the EU 2040 Target.
In relation to GHG emissions regulations, the company appeared to advocate for an EU 2040 GHG emissions reductions target of 65 to 75% compared 1990 levels, below the average trajectory of emission reductions in the policy consultation response from June 2023 and the CEO suggested the ambitious target of a 90% emissions reductions target was unrealistic for Poland in an article from Politico in February 2024.
Positioning on the Energy Transition: PGE Group supports increasing renewables, nuclear and other zero-carbon energy technologies however, appears to consistently promote a role for fossil gas in the energy mix and opposes the early retirement of coal assets. For example, CEO, Wojciech Dąbrowski support for the long-term contribution of nuclear energy to support the shift towards renewables and other zero-carbon technologies in an article in Politico in December 2023 and has previously communicated support for a transition to renewable energy in an article in Poland Daily 24 in June 2023.
However, Dąbrowski appeared to oppose the early retirement of coal assets in a press release in June 2023 and advocates for a continued role for coal in an interview with Polish Radio 1 in May 2023. The CEO also advocated switching from coal to fossil gas without placing clear conditions on the need for CCS or methane emission abatement on the use of gas in an article in Business Insider in December 2023 and in a press release in January 2024.
Additionally, in a consultation response in June 2023, the company appeared to advocate for relying on industrial carbon removals over GHG emissions reductions in the EU 2040 Target and in feedback on the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), in March 2022, PGE opposed the specific regulation to transition the energy mix; the company did not support the phase-out of fossil fuel incentives by 2027.
Industry Association Governance: PGE Group has disclosed a complete list of its industry association memberships in its 2023 non-financial report. However, the company has not disclosed an account of its industry associations' positions and engagement activities and has not published an industry association review. PGE Group is a member of WindEurope, which has broadly positive engagement with climate policy. However, the company is also a member of Eurogas, which appears to advocate for the long-term role for fossil gas in the EU energy mix.
A detailed assessment of the company's corporate review on climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap's CA100+ Investor Hub here.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically.
This summary was last updated in Q3 2024.
In addition, PGE Group is a listed company with more than 50% of its shares owned by the government of Poland. State-owned enterprises likely retain channels of direct and private engagement with government officials that InfluenceMap is unable to assess, and therefore are not represented in PGE Group's engagement intensity metric.