Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is engaged on climate policy with some positive top-line messaging but otherwise ambiguous positions that are not clearly aligned with IPCC recommendations on limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C. GSK is a member of several influential industry associations, including the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), which takes negative positions on several key EU climate policies.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: GSK supports climate policy in its top-line messaging, albeit with significant exceptions. The company supported urgent climate action and the Paris Agreement in a May 2024 position paper. In the same position paper, GSK supported government regulation to respond to climate change. However, in February 2024, Managing Director Emmanuel Amory signed the Antwerp Declaration, which states that EU Green Deal policy targets should not be followed by prescriptive and detailed implementing regulations and emphasizes the loss of competitiveness.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: InfluenceMap detected limited engagement of GSK with specific climate change related policies in 2022-24. As a signatory of the Antwerp Declaration, the company supported some circular economy policies, however without clearly aligning its support with the waste hierarchy. In its 2023 CDP Climate Change Disclosure], GSK supported GHG emissions regulations to reduce fluorinated greenhouse gases for medical uses in the EU and the UK.
Positioning on Energy Transition: InfluenceMap detected limited engagement from GSK on the energy transition in 2022-24. In its 2022 Annual Report, published in March 2023, the company stated that the energy transition was “necessary to mitigate climate change”, and acknowledged that the energy crisis led to renewed investment in fossil fuels, but without providing a clear position on this development. As a signatory of the February 2024 Antwerp Declaration, GSK took unclear positions on industry decarbonization, for example supporting Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) without providing details on the long-term role of fossil fuels and conditions under which CCU would apply, and advocating for more funding for ‘clean’ technology without clarifying what this includes. In a May 2024 position paper, GSK advocated for the phase-out of fossil fuels and investments in clean energy.
Industry Association Governance: GSK retains membership of several influential industry associations such as the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), which engages on climate policy with predominantly negative positions. For example, the VCI did not support measures to boost the deployment of renewables in the EU Electricity Market Design reform in a February 2023 public consultation response. GSK is also a member of the Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) which is positively engaged, for example, it supported a more ambitious target of 45% by 2030 in the EU Renewable Energy Directive in a March 2023 joint letter. GSK has not published a formal review of its industry associations and climate policy engagement.
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 Q4 2024.