We have expanded the list of climate policies we assess company engagement with to incorporate land-use related policy, referring to legislative or regulatory measures to enhance and protect ecosystems and land where carbon is being stored. Assessments under this category are currently underweighted in terms of their contribution to the overall company metrics. This weighting will be progressively increased over the next 6 months.
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) does not appear to be actively lobbying national climate change legislation and has a mixed position on global climate change policy. Despite stating its support for “urgent action to tackle climate change on all fronts” on its website and advocating support for an ambitious UN Climate Treaty in 2015, the ICC has also stressed that any response to climate change should come at the ‘lowest economic cost’. ICC Secretary General John Danilovich, in the run-up to COP21 in November 2015, appears to have expressed a preference for ‘self-regulatory frame-works’ over government regulation. The ICC has supported the adoption of market based carbon pricing mechanisms, such as cap-and-trade schemes or carbon taxes, in G20 countries. However, it has also stressed concerns around carbon leakage and appears to condition this support on the need for resulting carbon prices not to be too ambitious. Despite Secretary General, John Danilovich, appearing to support the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies in 2015, the organization does not appear to have supported subsidies for renewable energy and also previously supported the increased use of unconventional gas in 2014.