Businesses and their associations supporting climate policy
By Climate Champions | September 4, 2024
This piece is part of our Climate Policy Engagement Series. Business associations are highly influential actors in the policymaking landscape, and can play a key role in helping to drive an agenda that protects climate and nature. Yet, InfluenceMap’s assessment of over 250 large industry associations globally shows us that a large number of significant business associations are opposing climate goals. To inspire associations around the globe to prioritise their climate policy engagement, we highlight two businesses and associations who are in the driving seat of ambitious climate policy.
Ørsted’s efforts to mobilize business associations to decarbonise steel
On key way to mobilise business associations to support decarbonisation is to pick the right business associations to work with. Ørsted works with a broad range of its business associations and networks to push for policies that unlock the potential of indirect electrification in heavy industries, in an effort to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels. This includes the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition (FMC) which brings together companies to leverage their purchasing power to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. In line with Ørsted’s FMC commitment for at least 10% of steel procurement volumes in 2030 to be near-zero emissions steel, Ørsted is particularly interested in enabling the decarbonization of the steel used in wind turbines. Ørsted has worked with FMC to create an FMC Steel Wind Energy sub-working group, contributing to a series of wind energy heavy plate steel dialogues discussing and promoting the incentives needed to invest in decarbonized steel.
Ørsted is also a founding member of the Climate Group’s SteelZero initiative through which Ørsted co-hosted the inaugural SteelZero summit with the Climate Group, proposing policies to raise the demand-side voice for net-zero steel. Speaking on this, Lauren Uppink Calderwood, Head of Global Engagement at Ørsted said:
Business associations and networks are vital in bringing together industries and policymakers to create regulatory frameworks that enable and incentivize the decarbonization of heavy industries like steel.
Ørsted’s work with business associations to increase decarbonisation of steel production is supported by Ørsted’s own efforts to raise political awareness on this topic. For example, by launching its own working paper proposing a way to connect the growing wind energy supply with a low-carbon steel industry to create a virtuous cycle, decoupling emissions from wind energy and addressing emissions from the steel industry.
Unilever calls on industry associations to step up climate efforts
In March 2024, Unilever published its first Climate Policy Engagement Review. The review has been recognised by InfluenceMap as setting a new best practice, scoring 100% against criteria based on the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying. ClimateVoice has also applauded Unilever’s review against others. Unilever’s Fiona Duggan says:
Business associations have the power to help drive climate policy action.
As part of the review, Unilever commissioned Volans, a think tank and advisory firm, to conduct an independent assessment of the climate policy engagement of its most important industry associations. The assessment looked in detail at 27 associations and how they had engaged in climate policy issues during 2022–23. The review found that in 26 of 27 cases there was room for improvement, either in terms of the association’s alignment with a science-based policy agenda and/or in terms of its engagement intensity on climate policy issues. Individual actions were specified for each association, indicating how Unilever intends to engage to encourage (partially) misaligned or inactive associations to improve their performance.
Since releasing their review, Unilever has played a leadership role in calling for better reporting of existing climate policy engagement and, in some cases, for changes to current association positions to make them scientifically aligned with Paris Agreement targets. The recently launched Business Associations Climate Action Guide encourages other businesses to do the same – with a step-by-step guide on how businesses can encourage their associations to support positive climate policy.
Turning to associations, not all are ranked poorly by InfluenceMap and in fact – some associations are leading the transition toward clean technologies like electric vehicles, or decarbonising industries like manufacturing.
Electric Vehicle Council – Australia
The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) is the national body representing the electric vehicle industry in Australia. Representing members from across the value chain of the electric vehicle sector, the EVC is a trusted advisor and advocate to governments and decision makers across Australia. Their mission is to drive investment and awareness to accelerate the electrification of transport, for a more sustainable and prosperous Australia. As the market is emerging in Australia, their work is particularly aimed at increasing certainty for investment through policy, knowledge sharing and education. Aman Gaur comments:
Working between government, industry and consumers, the Electric Vehicle Council is driving the decarbonisation of transport in Australia through the uptake of electric vehicles, which is crucial to meeting our net zero targets
In recent years, EVC has worked with the national and sub-national governments to implement policies for the acceleration of electric vehicles. The key policy initiative they shaped and supported was the National Vehicle Efficiency Standards which will see an increase in the volume and range of electric vehicles for purchase in Australia from 2025. EVC is continuing to work on measures to increase EV uptake through charging infrastructure, addressing consumer biases and improving the decarbonisation of heavy vehicles.
BEAMA’s Pioneering Service for Supply Chain Sustainability – UK
In a groundbreaking move to advance UK manufacturing and the wider supply chain toward decarbonisation, BEAMA has launched a pioneering Net Zero Service, which forms part of their Net Zero Hub. This initiative underscores BEAMA’s commitment to supporting its members in navigating the complexities of transitioning to Net Zero and sustainability. As key suppliers of Net Zero enabling technologies, BEAMA members are key to ensuring supply chain decarbonisation and more sustainable electrification systems and infrastructure.
Yselkla Farmer, CEO at BEAMA, says: “BEAMA’s Net Zero Service empowers manufacturers to lead in decarbonising their supply chains, providing knowledge, tools, and a platform for supply chain collaboration, best practices, and driving progress in industry standards and regulation.” She continues:
My hope is that other sectors can follow – taking decisive actions to engage their supply chains and drive real progress and action.
The Net Zero Service builds a corporate toolkit to inform members on how to reduce operational and embodied carbon while aligning with a circular economy. Educational resources and policy and regulatory advocacy for key Net Zero and sustainability topics underpin the service, from climate commitments to sustainable product design. The service offers collaboration and learning events, webinars, and workshops, designed to foster community learning and support supply chain engagement. A Technical Sustainability Committee and dedicated task forces address specific market and supply chain challenges, ensuring the initiative remains practical and effective.
The initiative has been met with overwhelming enthusiasm from BEAMA members. BEAMA remains steadfast in its mission to guide members through the decarbonisation journey, promoting collaboration and partnerships across industry, market, and government initiatives.
