In September 2025, as part of NYC Climate Week, InfluenceMap and the We Mean Business Coalition convened corporate climate leaders for a private meeting to discuss how companies can drive progress on climate policy. In their remarks, the companies were clear that governments must stay the course on climate action to ensure stability and competitiveness. This briefing highlights comments from several of these companies on their Responsible Policy Engagement (RPE) strategies on climate. Remarks from Advanced Energy United, Holcim, Iberdrola, Maersk, Nestlé, Schneider Electric, and Unilever follow.
InfluenceMap’s data consistently finds that a vocal minority of incumbent industry actors—largely from the fossil fuel, transport, and agriculture industries—are actively working to delay an energy transition in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientific guidance. These companies and industry associations are powerful, strategic, and collaborative, coordinating negative advocacy, narratives, and public relations to block policies that would disrupt their heavy-emitting business models.
Despite this strategic opposition to climate policy, the transition from brown to green across the economy is already underway, spanning energy, transport, and other heavy-emitting sectors. Renewable energy accounted for more than 90% of new power capacity added globally in 2024, and over 90% of new capacity added in the US in the first eleven months of 2025. Globally, battery-electric vehicles make up a growing share of new vehicles sold each year, displacing vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
Even so, government policy is needed to ensure that the right market incentives are in place and to accelerate the transition of existing energy, transport, and industrial infrastructure. Many companies, including those represented in the comments below, have investment plans and business models that depend on these policy frameworks. For this reason, science-aligned climate policy engagement, strategic and collaborative in nature while matching the scale and coordination of the fossil fuel value chain, is a business imperative.
Companies are increasingly recognizing this, and between 2020 and 2024, the proportion of engaged companies tracked by InfluenceMap that aligned their advocacy with science-based guidance on reaching net zero tripled from 5% to 15%. Below, InfluenceMap and the We Mean Business Coalition have compiled numerous resources to support companies as they map out the policies and advocacy needed to deliver on their transition plans.
The We Mean Business Coalition’s Responsible Policy Engagement (RPE) framework offers tools and resources to help companies align their climate advocacy with best practice.
Complementing this, InfluenceMap’s LobbyMap platform, the leading open-source database on corporate climate policy engagement, can help companies benchmark performance, track misaligned trade association activities, and identify opportunities for future advocacy and collaboration.
Additional resources and tools are available to support companies as they disclose their policy engagement activities, identify policy dependencies, and develop their transition plans.
To encourage greater coordination and collaboration with other science-aligned actors, InfluenceMap and the We Mean Business Coalition have convened corporate and investor leaders for the last three years to discuss challenges and opportunities for science-aligned climate policy engagement. Remarks from many of these leaders at the 2025 event follow.
"The transition towards net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 is a transformational journey for the cement industry. Holcim is fully committed to leading that transition and was among the first companies worldwide to have its 2030 and 2050 CO2 reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.
To achieve the necessary transition, we need a distinct shift in the policy environment—one that unlocks large-scale investments and enables the deployment of advanced technologies. In Europe, the last decade saw the evolution of a regulatory framework moving in that direction: starting with the various phases of the EU Emissions Trading System and going all the way to 2030 and 2050 emission reduction targets being inscribed into EU law, the establishment of an ambitious Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the implementation of the EU Innovation Fund.
Our message to policymakers in Europe and beyond is clear: don’t turn around, don’t delay, don’t dilute. The development of first-of-a-kind carbon management value chains is well underway. This requires unprecedented collaboration between the private and public sector, to de-risk the deployment, at scale, of innovative technologies and products. The cornerstone of that collaboration rests on a stable policy and regulatory ecosystem."
"At Iberdrola, we have focused our efforts to address climate change on two critical areas: transparency and building strategic alliances.
Information on both direct and indirect climate advocacy activities is clearly lacking, and companies have a responsibility to help fill this gap. We address this in three key ways: by ensuring transparency in our direct and indirect advocacy; by assessing the alignment of our industry association memberships with our own positions; and by developing a methodology to manage misalignments when they arise.
Climate change is far too complex and important of an issue for any company to address alone, and Iberdrola has built our strategic alliances to address a trilemma of related issues: sustainability, social impact, and competitiveness. On competitiveness, this means working with our industry to listen to demand, understand challenges, and identify common policy priorities.
We must reinforce our alliances because the energy transition requires all of us working together."
"Maersk has very high climate ambitions, and achieving them depends on having the right policy frameworks in place to support the maritime sector’s transition. Global coordination is critical for our industry. We’re working toward ambitious targets, but we need supporting measures in place to make them happen, including incentives and penalties that create a level playing field and drive industry-wide progress.
We remain optimistic and continue to push forward. The alternative to coordinated international action is a patchwork of national regulations that would be far less effective. It is important to have a clear business case for climate action, but more important is focusing your efforts to get on with the work. We’re eager to see practical mechanisms and instruments that can help accelerate the transition across the shipping sector."
"At Nestlé, transparency of our policy engagement is a key focus, and by improving in this area, we’ve seen a positive ripple effect across our activities. Just one example: streamlining our lobbying activities, especially in the EU, resulted in a focus on truly material topics and generated more positive impacts for our various businesses.
Our materiality approach guides our priorities. Our work is governed by specific goals, including transforming ingredient sourcing. Farmers are central to this transition, and we’re working to make the economic argument for regenerative agriculture and sustainable land use. It’s not always an easy case to make, but we’re continuously improving our argumentation by using evidence from the ground—ultimately aiming to make it easier for farmers to take on the risk of trying something new.
When it comes to taking these positive steps, clarity from policymakers creates a level playing field. We’ve seen examples where we've invested heavily in an area to show progress, only for the policy goalposts to move, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation. Policy stability is essential because it allows companies to make long-term investments with confidence, it enables farmers and suppliers to commit to sustainable practices, and it creates the predictable environment necessary for scaling solutions across entire value chains. Without that stability, we risk undermining the very transitions we’re all working to achieve."
"At Schneider Electric, as an impact company, we believe purpose and performance go hand in hand. Recent research analyzing over 35,000 CEO statements across 150 leading companies shows a growing recognition that sustainability is integral to long-term business value, a clear evolution from viewing it primarily through a compliance lens. This shift matters: climate action is no longer just a responsibility, it’s a strategic imperative for thriving in today’s economy.
Even amid geopolitical changes, our commitment remains steady. Decarbonization is part of our core business approach. Today, 24 US states have GHG reduction targets, creating significant opportunities for innovation and growth. We are also advancing energy resilience as a cornerstone of the energy transition.
By clearly demonstrating the business benefits of sustainability, we can navigate current challenges and accelerate progress. This is a message we aim to share consistently with policymakers and industry partners."
"At Unilever, we continue full steam ahead. Our work is grounded in our Climate Transition Action Plan, and our corresponding reporting is essential to keep stakeholders informed and engaged.
Internally, we see climate change as a key business risk—thus, every conversation we have about climate is clearly grounded in the business case. To both address this risk and achieve our internal targets, we need supportive, enabling policies. We’re very engaged on climate policy because we recognize that our supply chain investments need to be supported by policies to scale.
On trade associations, our view is straightforward: when our trade associations aren’t aligned with our climate transition plans, that’s not good value for our money. Misalignment means we’re invested in an association, but it is not reflecting our values or our business needs.
Last year, we conducted our first industry association review, and we’ve updated that review in 2025. In our 2025 review, we saw positive progress among our trade associations and a decrease in misalignment. Much of this progress, however, comes from associations shifting from obstructive to passive. To make progress, we need to see a shift from passive to active in favor of ambitious climate policy. We are actively working to change this dynamic, including by providing a key recommendation to each of our industry groups.
It’s easy to be against something, but it’s much harder and more nuanced to be for something. But it’s the work worth doing, and it’s the work that needs doing."
Heather O'Neill
President & CEO
Advanced Energy United
"Right now, tremendous opportunity exists to make climate and clean energy policy progress in US states. We have an opportunity to focus on making the energy system affordable and flexible, and we’re seeing significant innovation happening at the state level to address this. Colorado has emerged as a leading example of a state actively accelerating progress and shaping policy. The state recently passed legislation that advances multiple objectives simultaneously: reducing energy costs, cutting emissions, ensuring an equitable transition, and protecting natural resources. This kind of integrated approach demonstrates what’s possible when states take leadership.
We’ve found that legislators respond positively when they hear from multi-technology coalitions presenting a comprehensive set of solutions that can open doors. With this guidance in mind, we’re excited about the opportunities for progress in US states."