Report:
Silent Influence
Corporate political lobbying is a critical global issue to the progression of climate change.
However, there is little transparency in the market regarding which companies are supporting policy and who is effectively governing their climate lobbying actions.
To address this gap, this report has examined the public disclosures of 8,500 of the largest listed companies and assessed them using data science and AI models to provide both quantitative and qualitative results
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Authors: Thomas O'Neill, Adam Osborne, and Archie Barraclough
The report can be found here.
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Executive Summary
Why Climate Lobbying Matters
Corporate lobbying is a hidden force that shapes and regularly undermines climate policy. But despite mounting investor and public concern about climate change, 79% of companies remain silent on their lobbying activities, leaving investors and stakeholders in the dark.
There is a significant information data gap concerning which companies openly disclose their climate lobbying activities and whether they have effective internal governance structures in place to manage this issue. This is problematic as many companies demonstrate a misalignment between their stated climate commitments and their actual lobbying actions, which can inadvertently undermine net-zero objectives through inconsistent positions or membership in trade associations.
Our Approach
Danu Insight, a climate-tech non-profit, undertook a large-scale analysis to address this data gap, examining the public disclosures of over 8,500 listed companies globally. Leveraging web scraping and AI, we collected and processed information from diverse corporate sources.
We developed and applied two scoring frameworks: the Climate Lobbying Transparency framework assessed the quality of company disclosures; the Climate Lobbying Governance framework evaluated disclosures concerning internal policies, oversight responsibilities, and alignment review processes.
Key Findings
The findings reveal a profound lack of corporate disclosure and oversight regarding climate lobbying.
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Widespread Opaqueness: Most companies (78%) provide zero public disclosure about their direct or indirect climate policy lobbying. A similarly large proportion (75%) show no evidence of having a climate lobbying governance process.
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Minimal Governance: Less than 4% of companies appear to have strong or comprehensive governance structures in place to manage climate lobbying risks and ensure adequate alignment.
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Positive correlation: Companies with high governance scores are over six times more likely to also have high transparency scores.
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Implications and Recommendations
The widespread deficiencies in climate lobbying transparency and governance represent significant unmanaged risks for companies and investors, potentially undermining climate policy progress and exposing investors to reputational and regulatory risks.
Investors can utilise these findings for targeted corporate engagement and integrate climate lobbying assessments into ESG fund criteria. At the same time, Governments should standardise and regulate lobbying reporting frameworks.
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