Despite revisions to the EU Green Deal, corporate support for climate action continues to rise
Corporate support for EU climate policies continues to grow, despite lobbying efforts to downsize the remit and scope of various pieces of EU sustainability legislation, notably through the European Commission’s omnibus package.
Research by non-profit InfluenceMap shows 52 per cent of European companies advocate for climate policies aligned with the Paris Agreement’s goal to hold warming at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This is more than double the rate in 2019, when it stood at 24 per cent.
The findings also show that between 2025 and 2019, the proportion of companies advocating for policies that would increase emissions has decreased from 34 per cent to 13 per cent.
The results suggest corporate support for the EU’s Green Deal agenda is higher than when it was initially introduced in 2019. This finding challenges a growing narrative that ambitious EU climate policy cannot go hand in hand with strong industrial competition, says InfluenceMap.
It suggests positive advocacy for climate action by a substantial portion of the corporate sector likely reflects the long-term nature of corporate investment cycles, which are not easily swayed by shorter-term political developments.
However, trade and industry associations that lobby EU institutions heavily on behalf of their corporate members have been slower in supporting science-aligned climate policies, the results show.
Twelve per cent of the 80 industry groups analysed advocate for science-aligned policies, compared with 2 per cent in 2019.
Industry associations most resistant to ambitious climate policies include those representing transport groups and heavy industry, such as steel and chemicals, as well as large trade organisations and those representing member states.
InfluenceMap’s research shows commonly used tactics by these groups involve framing climate policy as a risk to competitiveness, supporting incentives to green investment but not stringent direct regulation, and promoting vague policy wording to create loopholes.
The study is based on an analysis of around 200 non-financial companies legally domiciled in the EU, the UK, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The companies are part of InfluenceMap’s lobbying database, which ranks entities that operate in sectors particularly relevant for climate change policy, such as energy, industrials and mining.
You can access the full research here.