9 - Measuring Climate Policy Alignment

Summary

Companies are advocating in favor of Paris-aligned climate policies and the majority of companies are not holding their trade associations accountable for their lobbying on climate policy. This is contrary to the fact that many companies have the correct risk management and governance systems in place to manage economic threats from climate change. Following Ceres’s theory of change, the impetus for the project was to engage in an action that would result in short-, medium-term outcomes, and ultimately resulting in a long-term impact. For the responsible policy engagement project, Ceres took action to identify the misalignment between what corporations state they are doing on climate change, and whether their policy actions represent those statements, in hopes to influence companies to better align their lobbying practices in the short term. In the medium term, the goal is more ambition climate policy adoption across the United States, thus impacting the long-term goals of overall emissions reduction.