Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: IBM engages with positive, though limited, positions on climate policy. Despite positive top-line positions, the company is a member of several trade associations that lobby negatively on climate.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: IBM’s top-line positions on climate change are mostly positive. The company signed a joint letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020 in support of the UK’s 2050 net-zero emission target, and in a January 2021 Center for Climate and Energy Solutions joint letter, IBM called for national policies to achieve a net-zero economy. In its 2020 “IBM and the Environment” Report, released in 2021, the company stated support for the Paris Agreement and the United States’ commitment to it.
However, in June 2021, according to Illinois News Today, IBM appeared to highlight the uncertainty for business in response to certain climate policies such as “climate change tariffs.” In addition, as a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), IBM appears to support the elimination of burdensome climate-related regulations: the CLC’s most recent Bipartisan Climate Roadmap, released in August 2021 and endorsed by IBM, continues to advocate for “trading the most ambitious carbon price enacted by any leading emitter nation for regulatory relief.”
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: InfluenceMap did not find recent evidence of IBM engaging with specific climate-related policies, and the company only describes its climate positions in broad and limited terms on its corporate website, accessed in April 2022. In its 2021 CDP Climate Change Disclosure, IBM described its leadership in developing and supporting the Climate Leadership Council’s carbon tax. The company disclosed an unclear position regarding energy efficiency legislation and renewable energy legislation in its 2021 CDP response. IBM has set its own operational GHG emissions targets, per a blog post in February 2021, but does not appear to have commented on the need for legislative GHG emissions targets.
Positioning on Energy Transition: IBM’s engagement with the energy transition appears to be very limited. IBM signed a July 2021 Center for Climate and Energy Solutions joint letter calling for net-zero infrastructure investments from Congress in July 2021.
Industry Association Governance: IBM disclosed a list of its “principal” US-based industry association memberships on its corporate website, however it does not comment on how the company is attempting to influence these groups, nor the positions of the associations on climate policy. IBM has not published an audit of its alignment with industry links. The list omits the California Chamber of Commerce, which has actively opposed California climate policy. IBM is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Australia, and BusinessEurope, all of which engage with largely negative positions on climate policy in their respective jurisdictions. Several of IBM’s groups, such as the Business Roundtable and Edison Electric Institute, demonstrate more mixed positions on climate.