Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Coles Group (Coles) has low levels of engagement with climate policy. The company displays largely positive top-line positions on climate change and the energy transition, yet demonstrates limited transparent engagement with specific climate-related regulations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Coles displays limited yet supportive top-line messaging on climate change. The company supported the goals of the Paris Agreement in its 2023 Sustainability Report, published September 2023, while its CEO, Leah Weckert, backed the need for government regulation to respond to climate change, as reported in a December 2023 article by The Australian.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Coles demonstrates limited transparent engagement with specific climate-related regulations. The company appeared to broadly support Australia’s Guarantee of Origin Scheme in a February 2023 consultation submission, and also issued support for Australia’s proposed Renewable Electricity Certification scheme in a separate February 2023 consultation submission, noting that it backed “the proposal to allow aggregation from multiple small-scale systems”.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Coles’ engagement with the energy transition appears to be largely confined to top-line statements on the transition of the energy mix. Coles recognized the need to “accelerate the transition to a net zero economy” in its 2023 Sustainability Report. Previous CEO, Steve Cain, also communicated broad support for a “smooth and resilient” energy transition in December 2022 comments to the Australian Financial Review, however it is unclear if this position is aligned with IPCC timelines and advice on delivering 1.5°C warming.
Industry Association Governance: Coles disclosed a list of its industry association memberships in its 2023 Sustainability Report, however it did not disclose an account of its associations’ climate-related positions and engagement activities. Coles is a member of several industry associations that continue to promote a prolonged role for fossil gas in the energy mix, including the Energy Users Association of Australia and the Business Council of Australia.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company's scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q2 2024.