“Net Zero Greenwash”: The Gap Between Corporate Commitments and their Policy Engagement

New InfluenceMap research finds that corporate net zero or similar targets are rarely matched by support for government climate policy, with 58% of almost 300 companies from the Forbes 2,000 found to be at risk of “net zero greenwash” due to their policy engagement. Using the UN High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) 'Integrity Matters' guidance on lobbying as a benchmark, this report considers a company to be at risk of "net zero greenwash" due to its policy engagement if it has announced a net zero or similar target but is not sufficiently supportive of policy to deliver the Paris Agreement according to InfluenceMap’s world-leading LobbyMap platform. The assessment of policy engagement includes both the company's own engagement and that of its industry associations.

The 2022 UN HLEG ‘Integrity Matters’ report provides a “roadmap to prevent net zero from being undermined by false claims, ambiguity and ‘greenwash.’” It recommends actions for non-state actors to credibly demonstrate alignment with net zero by 2050, including aligning policy engagement, clearly stating that “non-state actors cannot lobby to undermine ambitious government climate policies either directly or through trade associations or other bodies." This report focuses only on the net zero action recommendation on climate policy engagement; other recommendations made by the UN, such as scaling up renewable energy, are not included in the analysis of “net zero greenwash.”

Chevron, Delta Air Lines, Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, Glencore International, Nippon Steel Corporation, Repsol, Stellantis, Southern Company, and Woodside Energy Group Ltd are among the 21.5% of companies assessed to be at significant risk of “net zero greenwash” due to their policy engagement. All have announced a net zero or similar target, but InfluenceMap data shows them to be misaligned in their climate policy engagement activities with policy to deliver the Paris Agreement. The companies are highlighted as case studies due to their highly-active levels of engagement with climate policy and above-average use of net zero terms on their corporate web pages.

The research also quantifies the use of a set of net zero terms on companies’ websites, finding only a very weak positive correlation between the number of corporate web pages containing these net zero terms and positive climate policy engagement. Therefore, companies that engage positively with climate policy use net zero terms only marginally more than those that do not. This suggests that many companies use the language of net zero without supporting climate policy.

Almost all companies use net zero terms on their websites, but a small group of companies account for 83% of all web pages found containing net zero terms. InfluenceMap found that almost all companies (93%) own web pages containing net zero terms, adding up to a cumulative 189,276 web pages. However, 83% of these web pages are owned by 22% of the companies analyzed, suggesting that a small group of companies are conducting high-intensity net zero communications.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is due to take further action on non-Party stakeholder climate action to recognize leadership and prevent greenwash. In June 2023, the UNFCCC announced plans for a ‘Recognition and Accountability Framework’ to monitor net zero transition plans. The UN also published a checklist for businesses implementing the HLEG guidance, which includes recommendations to “demonstrate consistency” between the transition plan and policy engagement and to have an “escalation strategy” if industry associations continue to oppose policy.

Companies with a net zero or similar target are at risk of “net zero greenwash” in line with the UN HLEG’s “Integrity Matters” guidance if their climate policy engagement activity is assessed by InfluenceMap as not sufficiently supportive of policy to deliver the Paris Agreement.

InfluenceMap notes varying degrees of “net zero greenwash” risk, linked to policy engagement performance according to InfluenceMap’s Performance Band. The Performance Band represents a full measure of a company’s climate policy engagement, accounting for both its own engagement and that of its industry associations.

Over half of all companies analyzed are at risk of “net zero greenwash” due to their policy engagement, with 21.5% at “significant risk” (Performance Band D to F) and 36.5% of companies at “moderate risk” (Performance Band C to D+). The corporate climate targets and InfluenceMap Performance Bands for the companies included in this research are accessible via the hyperlinks.

InfluenceMap calculated for a linear correlation between each company’s Total Score (InfluenceMap assessment of policy engagement, both direct and via industry associations) and the number of corporate web pages containing net zero terms according to Google searches.

The search found only a very weak positive correlation, indicating that companies that engage positively with climate policy use net zero terms only marginally more than those that do not. This suggests that many companies use the language of net zero but do not then support climate policy.¹

The quadrant chart below shows the distribution of companies with corporate web pages containing net zero terms according to their InfluenceMap Performance Band.

93% of companies have corporate web pages containing net zero terms.

79% of companies have a net zero or similar “end-state” commitment according to Net Zero Tracker data, but have not set an SBTi net zero target. Only 8% of companies have set an SBTi net zero target.

Companies with a net zero or similar “end-state” commitment own almost as many web pages containing net zero terms on average (715 per company) as those with an SBTi net zero target set (821 per company).