Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Lobbying Overview: Canon appears to have limited engagement with climate and energy policy both in Japan and globally. It only describes its negative positions in vague terms or only describes its internal efforts on reducing GHG emissions without specifying its position towards legislations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Canon displays mixed top-line messaging on climate action. On its corporate website accessed in October 2022, it is unclear if Canon supports a need for drastic action in line with IPCC, as it does not place GHG emissions reductions within clearly defined timeframe, nor it is clear if Canon supports the Paris Agreement
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Canon appears to take mixed positions on climate-related regulations. Canon appears to acknowledge the risk of climate regulations without stating a clear position towards climate policy in its Sustainability report published in July 2021. In the same report, Canon has stated that it has implemented energy efficiency standards within its organization, however it is unclear if it supports legislative energy efficiency standards or targets.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Canon appears to be concerned with transitioning its own operations including utilizing renewable energy, with some uncertainty around whether the company is supporting the broader transition to a low carbon economy in its 2021 CSR report published July 2021. Canon’s CEO Fujio Mitarai emphasized concerns over the technical feasibility of a transition towards renewable energy, stating that nuclear power “will probably become the main source of energy” because it is inexpensive.
Industry Association Governance: Canon has not disclosed a full list of industry association membership in its corporate reporting, neither has it published a review of its alignment with industry associations on climate policy. In its CDP response from 2022, Canon disclosed its membership to Japan Business Machine and Information System Industries Association (JBMIA) but failed to disclose others found by InfluenceMap to have opposed progressive climate policy such as Keidanren. In the same CDP response, Canon only disclosed one policy position or an arbitrary/small number of policy positions.
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 Q3(Jul-Sep) 2023.