Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Novo Nordisk is actively engaged on climate policy in the EU with broadly positive positions in its top-line messaging as well as on specific climate-related legislation. The company retains membership to several industry associations that engage on climate policies with negative positions.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Novo Nordisk engages positively with climate policy in its top-line messaging. In a September 2023 open letter, the company supported carbon neutrality by 2050. CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen signed an October 2023 joint letter in which he supported limiting global warming to 1.5°C and advocated for more ambitious urgent climate action. The same joint letter supported government policy to make sure carbon is priced into the economy. Mr. Jørgensen signed another joint letter in September 2023 which stated support for the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policies: InfluenceMap detected limited recent engagement from Novo Nordisk with specific climate change-related policies.
CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen stated broad support for renewable energy legislation and targets, as well as energy efficiency targets and legislation in an October 2023 joint letter. The company supported the EU's CO2 standards for light-/medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles in a July 2024 joint letter.
Novo Nordisk engaged positively on circular economy-related regulation throughout 2024. The company repeatedly advocated for an ambitious Global Treaty on Plastics by calling policymakers to include legally binding instruments covering the entire lifecycle of plastics, for example in the Bridge to Busan Declaration in October 2024.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Novo Nordisk engages positively on the energy transition and industry decarbonization. CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen signed an October 2023 joint letter which advocated for the removal of fossil fuel subsidies and stated broad support for the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan to decarbonize the economy. In the same joint letter, the CEO also supported climate investments in the US Inflation Reduction Act. Novo Nordisk strongly supported the EU’s Greening Corporate Fleets Initiative in a July 2024 joint letter.
Evidence suggests supporting specific measures to decarbonize the economy: appearing to support the climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act (CEO, WEF Joint Letter, October 2023)
Industry Association Governance: Novo Nordisk disclosed some of its industry association memberships in its 2024 Annual Report, published in February 2025, but appears to have excluded more than 3 industry associations which are actively engaged on climate policy, including the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) through its subsidiary Novo Nordisk Pharmatech. Novo Nordisk is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce, which engages predominantly negatively on climate policy. Novo Nordisk has not published a formal review of its industry association memberships 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 Q2 2025.