{"id":32613,"date":"2025-06-26T05:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T05:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32613"},"modified":"2025-06-26T05:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T05:34:09","slug":"top-us-companies-walk-fine-line-on-climate-amid-competing-pressures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32613","title":{"rendered":"Top US companies walk fine line on climate amid competing pressures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=43548347-8940-40e2-a557-c1e3c10d8f10&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>US companies are maintaining climate commitments while trimming their messaging about it, as they walk a tightrope between competing pressures on the environment, research shows. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>An exclusive analysis shared with the Financial Times from Farient Advisors, which reviewed sustainability disclosures, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and company announcements, found 71 per cent of the 50 largest US companies by market capitalisation have remained committed to their climate goals. Twenty per cent have delayed or decreased their commitments, while 8 per cent have increased them.<\/p>\n<p>Yet many of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/us-companies\" data-trackable=\"link\">companies<\/a> that remain committed to climate goals have nonetheless not published sustainability updates about their efforts, in a sign of their reticence over how they talk about it publicly. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The findings suggest a new corporate strategy that the biggest American companies have adopted as they seek to navigate the delicate political climate, altered drastically in the last year by the re-election of President Donald Trump and the backlash to climate and diversity efforts. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Companies] are being careful about where they put out their messaging around their environmental or climate efforts,\u201d said Brian Bueno, Farient Advisors\u2019 sustainability practice leader. \u201cThey\u2019re sharing less information than they would otherwise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, for example, deleted a statement in its 2024 annual filing that once described sustainability as one of its \u201ccore values\u201d. It also removed all references to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/esg-investing\" data-trackable=\"link\">ESG<\/a>\u201d, which stands for environmental, social and governance. Despite the change in tone, the company has maintained its climate targets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies may reframe how they talk about [climate] issues but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to stop talking about it,\u201d said Tyson Timmer, a researcher at UCLA. \u201cThere is still a large group of stakeholders\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009that are still concerned about these issues even though the politics in the US and parts of Europe have swung the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump has called climate change a hoax and his administration ended an SEC regulation requiring companies to disclose climate impacts. Texas attorney-general Ken Paxton led a coalition of Republican states in a lawsuit against BlackRock and other asset managers over their ESG strategies.<\/p>\n<p>The Conference Board said in a recent report that 80 per cent of companies it surveyed were adjusting their sustainability strategy in response to the political environment. It found many had replaced the acronym \u201cESG\u201d \u2014 now considered politically charged \u2014 with alternatives such as \u201csustainability\u201d or \u201cimpact\u201d. Survey respondents said they expected US federal policymakers and regulators to be the primary source of ESG backlash over the next two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies in general are becoming quieter,\u201d said Andrew Jones, principal research at the governance and sustainability centre at the Conference Board. \u201c[They are] recalibrating language to talk in a neutral, less politically exposed way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some companies have delayed sustainability reports amid the uncertainty. McDonald\u2019s, which aims to halve emissions by its suppliers by 2030, has not released a sustainability report this year (it did provide an update in its proxy statement in response to a shareholder proposal). <\/p>\n<p>Similarly, UnitedHealth Group has not released a sustainability report this year but said in its proxy statement that it was maintaining goals announced two years ago. <\/p>\n<p>Others have released sustainability reports reaffirming their goals, including Microsoft and Apple. Nvidia announced it had achieved its near-term goal of powering its offices and data centres with 100 per cent renewable energy this year.<\/p>\n<p>Coca-Cola, which weakened its environmental targets last year, reframed its sustainability goals in its most recent annual filing as \u201cvoluntary goals\u201d that were \u201csubject to change\u201d, wording absent from its 2023 filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In response to inquiries from the Financial Times, UnitedHealth said its report would be released later this summer, and Nvidia declined to comment. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment about the findings. <\/p>\n<p>Jones said he expected companies to face challenges in meeting their goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"93bb3ae2-2910-42e9-aa3a-584c27011efe\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/93bb3ae2-2910-42e9-aa3a-584c27011efe\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2078\/1386\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe momentum is slow for action on climate and particularly action on mitigating emissions and decarbonising and moving away from fossil fuels,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Investors and asset managers have become less vocal on environmental and social issues and have become less supportive of activism. There were fewer climate-related proposals this year compared with last year, according to Danielle Fugere, president and chief council of investor advocacy group As You Sow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a year of uncertainty,\u201d she said. \u201cThis administration and red state attorneys-general have been targeting companies that talk about climate action.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-layout-name=\"card\" data-layout-width=\"full-width\">\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__container\">\n<h3 id=\"climate-capital\" class=\"n-content-heading-3 o3-editorial-typography-subheading\">Climate Capital<\/h3>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__slot\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec.jpg?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\" data-image-type=\"image\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__slot\">\n<p>Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/climate-capital\" data-trackable=\"link\">Explore the FT\u2019s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Are you curious about the FT\u2019s environmental sustainability commitments?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aboutus.ft.com\/company\/sustainability\" data-trackable=\"link\">Find out more about our science-based targets here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/43548347-8940-40e2-a557-c1e3c10d8f10\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}