How Pioneering Companies Lead on Climate Policy

In the four-and-a-half years since the launch of the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying – an investor-backed framework that sets clear expectations for how companies should manage and disclose their climate policy engagement – corporate interest in the topic has fluctuated. 

Interest spiked in the 2022-24 period. Dozens of companies started producing climate lobbying reports, and in early 2024, Unilever became the first company to produce a report that met the criteria set out in the Global Standard in full. [Full disclosure: Volans helped develop the methodology for Unilever’s review and conducted an assessment of its key trade associations for the report.]  

Momentum stalled somewhat following Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025. For US companies in particular, public climate advocacy became risky. Reputational benefit was no longer a compelling driver of action. Globally, though, what we’ve seen over the last 18 months is a plateauing of corporate and investor interest in responsible policy engagement, not a pullback. Very few of the companies and investors that were serious about positive climate advocacy in 2024 have backtracked – they just haven’t been joined by many new faces in that time. 

However, the next wave may now be building. Momentum around constructive policy engagement was apparent at London Climate Action Week at the end of June 2026. This is being driven by three key factors:  

1. Strategic dependencies – More companies are starting to recognise that an enabling policy environment is needed for them to meet the targets set out in their transition plans. This is coupled with companies' desire to maintain ambition and stakeholders' trust as 2030 target deadlines loom. 
2. Investor pressure – Shareholders, too, are ever more aware of the degree to which progress on climate is “policy dependent”. Given the scale of the financial risk associated with a “policy-as-usual” trajectory, they are increasingly holding companies to account for their policy engagement on specific issues (e.g., deforestation, electric vehicle mandates, etc.).  
3. The cost of inaction – The latest science is unequivocal: continuing down our current path will end badly. We have now overshot seven of nine Planetary Boundaries and, with 1.5°C likely to be breached in the next few years, the risk of triggering irreversible tipping points and undermining the biophysical systems we depend on is non-trivial.  

Putting guidance into action 

Based on our experience of working with climate policy engagement pioneers across business and finance, we see three essential pre-conditions for success: 

1: A clear narrative explaining why climate policy engagement matters.  

Companies need to articulate why a proactive approach to managing climate policy engagement is important. How does it help the business meet its broader objectives – whether that’s about climate targets, growth opportunities or risk mitigation? The answer needs to make sense to both internal and external stakeholders. 

• Example: Coca-Cola Europacific Partners' (CCEP) approach to public policy engagement indicates: 'Our actions alone will not be sufficient to decarbonise at the scale and pace required. We need governments to create enabling conditions that support our decarbonisation trajectory. Our public policy engagement aims to foster a policy environment that supports sustainable growth and the delivery of climate policies aligned with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C pathway.' 

Internally, company-wide, cross-functional buy-in is essential. For example, given the vital role that trade associations play as conduits of corporate political influence, colleagues managing trade association relationships need to be on board and aware of the importance of managing “indirect” policy engagement well.  

Externally, transparency in the form of disclosure about the company’s direct and indirect climate policy engagement is fundamental. Beyond that, success is driven by companies' willingness to share their experience and learnings with others.  

2: It's a journey, not a tick-box. 

Managing your climate policy footprint is not a one-off process: it's the start of a long-term journey. Companies are expected to demonstrate improvement in both direct and indirect engagement over time. As a result, they need to clearly communicate what improvements are anticipated from their trade associations – both publicly, and in discussion with individual associations – linking back to how progress helps enable the realisation of climate targets. 

One way to demonstrate progress on climate policy engagement efforts is to publish regular updates assessing direct and indirect climate policy engagement activities against a company's climate policy priorities and what is needed to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C pathway. Several companies do this, and have improved the quality of their disclosure over time:  

• Iberdrola and Nestlé have published disclosures specific to their direct and indirect policy engagement in 2023, 2024 and 2025, with a significant increase in robustness (as reflected by an increase in InfluenceMap score) for their 2025 review.  
• Unilever has published two reviews, in 2024 and 2025. The most recent review clearly outlines progress against the actions outlined in the first review and specifies actions for Unilever to undertake with individual associations during the next review period.  

3: Resources are required. 

Long-term progress can only be realised with proper resource allocation. Policy engagement needs to be treated as a core strategic function, not a reporting exercise or a “side-of-desk” project for someone who happens to be interested. 

Internal resource can be supplemented by leaning into external assets, such as comprehensive, publicly available climate policy engagement data specific to companies and trade associations (e.g., LobbyMap), or optimising the use of specialist trade associations to engage on specific policy topics. These can be valuable assets as the case is being built for further internal resource. 

What happens after internal and external buy-in is realised?  

Once the case has been built, focus can shift to actioning direct and indirect policy engagement. Specific guidance on how to do this is outlined in the playbook for companies on mobilising trade associations as a force for good, authored by Volans and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).  

The playbook contains guidance on (1) what science-aligned advocacy means; (2) how to create climate policy priorities; (3) the steps to conduct a trade association assessment; (4) how to engage associations following an assessment; and (5) how to develop a framework for trade association membership decisions.  

Call to action 
 

Companies and investors need to be brave and step up to create the conditions to enable them to meet their climate and sustainability-related targets, and ultimately, advance enterprise value. Regardless of the geopolitical context, the science is clear: action now is better than action later.  

An enabling policy environment will help companies deliver on their own climate and sustainability-related targets.  

• Companies should lean on this rationale when building the internal case for climate policy engagement. By partnering with peers to push their trade associations to lobby constructively on climate policies, progress can be unlocked. Assessing whether trade association memberships are advancing companies' climate policy priorities is a matter of good governance. If an association is failing to do so, companies should ask themselves whether the association in question is really delivering value for money. 
• Investors should ask portfolio companies whether their trade associations are constructively or obstructively engaged on climate policy – and what the plan is to address any areas of misalignment. Continuing a dialogue with companies over time will build trust and ensure companies don’t treat this as a “one-and-done” disclosure exercise. 

It may be tempting to think that climate policy is somebody else’s responsibility. If only that were true. The reality is we all have a role to play in holding companies and their trade associations to account. So let's start.