Unilever encourages trade associations to support stronger climate change policies
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Trade associations have the power to help shape climate policy. Learn how Unilever is engaging with these industry bodies, asking them to align their policies with our climate positions and urging them to support a faster phase-out of fossil fuels.
As one of the world’s biggest FMCG companies, Unilever is well placed to call for stronger climate policies to help accelerate business decarbonisation.
We’re focusing our efforts where they are needed most, to move us towards our near-term climate targets and net zero ambition set out in our Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) (PDF 7.98 MB). This includes calling on governments to raise their ambition and urging others in our value chain to use their influence here too.
Trade associations can encourage government action on climate, helping to accelerate greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions across the highest-emitting sectors in our supply chain, including energy, chemicals and agriculture. But we believe that most of the industry bodies we work with could be doing more.
Our newly updated Climate Policy Engagement Review (CPER) examines 26 of the key trade associations Unilever works with, measuring our alignment with them on important climate policy issues in 2024, and highlighting where there is need for greater engagement.
Assessing levels of climate policy engagement
The CPER is an independent review of a cross-section of the industry bodies we are working with globally, carried out by Volans, a think tank and advisory firm. It assesses the strength of our trade associations’ climate policies in relation to our own and determines whether they will help or hinder our climate transition.
The primary source of information used was the LobbyMap platform, created by InfluenceMap, an independent think tank that tracks corporate and industry association climate policy engagement. Using this publicly available data, Volans reviewed the detail of each association’s engagement on specific policies, to assess whether its detailed positions were aligned or not.
Transparency creates opportunities for coordination among members, encouraging associations to engage more actively and align with the majority of their members on climate.
Ed Collins, Director, InfluenceMap
Trade associations are making some progress
In 2024, our initial CPER outlined a range of actions we wanted our trade associations to take to increase their alignment with our climate policies. These included working with industry associations to ensure they revisit climate policy positions, establishing climate subcommittees and improving transparency on lobbying activity. Since then, Unilever’s relationship managers have initiated ongoing one-to-one conversations with these associations, looking at specific opportunities to support policies that enable our climate strategy.
We’re urging the industry bodies we work with to actively demonstrate their support for Unilever’s climate policies, including a phase-out of fossil fuels, a swifter transition to renewables and greater implementation of regenerative agriculture practices.
The updated review shows that the number of trade associations who are at odds with our climate policies overall has fallen: 18 out of 26 of the industry bodies surveyed had no examples of misalignment with our policies in 2024, up from 13 out of 27 the previous year. But even with this progress, there is more work to be done.
Industry bodies must address contradictions arising from fossil fuel phase-out
“Unilever is already making progress towards our climate targets, but enabling government policies will help us go further, faster. We’ve increased our direct advocacy on climate issues to reflect that. We need trade associations to do the same, bringing their considerable influence to the table and growing climate engagement among their members,” says Rebecca.
Around half the trade associations surveyed are still only ‘passively aligned’ on climate policy. This means that, while an association’s public position on climate policy aligns with our positions and Paris-aligned science-based benchmarks, their direct engagement on the issue is limited.
Unilever is keen to work with these trade associations, to encourage a move from being ‘passively aligned’ to taking constructive action. This will be key if they are going to help create the enabling environment we need to meet our climate targets.
While many of these industry bodies support scaling up renewable energy, they are also often supportive of fossil fuel energy. Rapid fossil fuel phase-out is essential to keep global temperatures within the limits outlined by the Paris Agreement, so Unilever will continue to work with these organisations on changing their contradictory positions.
United industry support can unlock enabling climate policies
When governments and regulatory bodies are drafting laws that will affect the world’s chances of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C, industry bodies often serve as the voice of business in these conversations.
“Trade associations can show real climate leadership, by using their influence to advocate for policies that support emissions reductions,” says Rebecca.
Unilever’s latest annual report continues to identify climate change as a material risk to our business. In the coming year, we will continue to explore further ways to engage and collaborate with trade associations to improve their active engagement on key climate policy priorities.
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