“Investors will no longer tolerate a glaring gap between a company’s words and their actions on climate,” commented Charlotta Dawidowski Sydstrand, sustainability strategist at AP7.

Major investors including BNP Paribas Asset Management, the Swedish pension fund AP7 and the Church of England Pensions Board are calling for more responsible climate lobbying, with disclosure on who is behind the lobbying.

“We have worked together on the issue of responsible climate lobbying since 2015. Over the years, we have managed to get over 40 companies to report whether their lobbying is in line with the Paris Agreement. Now we have a standard that is a tool that makes it easier for companies through clear uniform expectations and requirements from investors," Sydstrand added.

The Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying consists of a framework of 14 indicators to help companies report and investors to evaluate companies' climate lobbying. The 14-point standard calls on companies to make formal commitments for responsible climate lobbying and to take action if lobbying activities carried out by them, or their trade associations, run counter to the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The standard has been developed with the support of Chronos Sustainability, InfluenceMap and the London School of Economics. This in consultation with the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (Europe) (IIGCC), Ceres, the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) and the Investor Group on Climate Change (Australia / New Zealand ) (IGCC). In total, over 3,800 organisations and investors have had input to the project.

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