Delta Air Lines
What do our scores mean?
The organizational score represents the degree to which the organization influencing climate policy and legislation. Corporations also have relationship scores reflecting their links with influencers like trade associations. Both are combined to place the corporation in a performance band. Full details can be found here.
Update August 2021: If limited evidence had been collected either on a company's direct policy engagement (Organization Score) or industry association links (Relationship Score) this is signified with an ‘n/a’ (not available). If limited evidence has been collected in both areas, the Total Score is also given as n/a. Full details and links back to any primary evidence that has been collected can still be located on the company’s profile.
Engagement Intensity
The engagement intensity (EI) is a metric of the extent to which the company is engaging on climate change policy matters, whether positively or negatively. It is a number from 0 (no engagement at all) to 100 (full engagement on all queries/data points). Clearly energy companies are more affected by climate regulations and will have a higher EI than, for example retailers. So an organization’s score should be looked at in conjunction with this metric to gauge the amount of evidence we are using in each case as a basis for scoring. On our scale, an EI of more than 35 indicates a relatively large amount of climate policy engagement.
Relationship Score, December 2020
A new batch of industry associations has been uploaded onto the InfluenceMap system and the relationship scores recalculated accordingly.
Updated terminology, February 2021
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.
- Details of Organization Score
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What do the 0,1,2 and NSs, NAs mean?
Each cell in the organization's matrix presents a chance for us to assess each data source against our column of climate change policy queries. We score from -2 to 2, with negative scores representing evidence of obstructive influence. "NA" means "not applicable" and "NS" means "not scored" - that is we did not find any evidence either way. In both cases, the cell's weighting is re-distributed over others. Red and blue cells represent highly interesting negative or positive influence respectively. Full details can be found here.
- Details of Relationship Score
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What is the Relationship Score
A corporation, as well as its organizational score will have a relationship score. It is computed by aggregating the organizational scores of the Influencers (trade bodies etc.) it has relationships with, weighted by both the strength of these relationships and the relative importance of the Influencers towards climate change policy. Full details can be found here.
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QUERIES
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DATA SOURCES | ||||||
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Main Web Site
The main organizational Web site of the company and its direct links to major affiliates and attached documents. |
Social Media
We search other media and sites funded or controlled by the organization, such as social media (Twitter, Facebook) and direct advertising campaigns of the organization. |
CDP Responses
We assess and score responses to two questions from CDP's climate change information request (12.3 a & 12.3c) related to political influence questions (currently these are not numerically scored by the CDP process). |
Legislative Consultations
Comments from the entity being scored on governmental regulatory consultation processes, including those obtained by InfluenceMap through Freedom of Information requests. |
Media Reports
Here we search in a consistent manner (the organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
CEO Messaging
Here we search in a consistent manner (the CEO/Chairman, organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
Financial Disclosures
We search 10-K and 20-F SEC filings where available, and non US equivalents where not. . |
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Communication of Climate Science
Is the organization transparent and clear about its position on climate change science? |
1
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NS | NA | NS | NS | NS | NS |
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Alignment with IPCC on Climate Action
Is the organization supporting the science-based response to climate change as set out by the IPCC? (the IPCC) |
0
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NS | NA | NS | NS | NS | NS |
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Supporting the Need for Regulations
To what extent does the organization express the need for regulatory intervention to resolve the climate crisis? |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS |
-1
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Support of UN Climate Process
Is the organization supporting the UN FCCC process on climate change? |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS |
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Transparency on Legislation
Is the organisation transparent about its positions on climate change legislation/policy and its activities to influence it? |
0
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NA |
-1
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NA | NA | NA | NS |
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Carbon Tax
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: carbon tax. |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS |
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Emissions Trading
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: emissions trading. |
0
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NS | NS | NS | NS | NS |
0
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Energy and Resource Efficiency
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: energy efficiency policy, standards, and targets |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS |
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Renewable Energy
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Renewable energy legislation, targets, subsidies, and other policy |
NS |
1
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NS | NS |
-2
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NS | NS |
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Energy Transition & Zero Carbon Technologies
Is the organization supporting an IPCC-aligned transition of the economy away from carbon-emitting technologies, including supporting relevant policy and legislative measures to enable this transition? |
NS | NS | NS | NS |
-2
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-1
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NS |
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GHG Emission Regulation
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: GHG emission standards and targets. Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Standards, targets, and other regulatory measures directly targeting Greenhouse Gas emissions |
NS | NS | NS | NS |
0
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NS |
-1
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Disclosure on Relationships
Is the organization transparent about its involvement with industry associations that are influencing climate policy, including the extent to which it is aligned with these groups on climate? |
0
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NS |
-1
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NA | NA | NA | NS |
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
The Senior Vice President for Delta Air Lines, Heather Wingate, is on the Board of Directors for the US Chamber of Commerce.
Heather Wingate
Open PDF file of Data Source
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
Delta Air Lines is a member of the US-Japan Business Council
not specified
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
The Senior Vice President for Delta Air Lines, Heather Wingate, is on the Board of Directors for the US Chamber of Commerce.
Heather Wingate
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
Delta Air Lines is a member of the US-Japan Business Council
not specified
How to Read our Relationship Score Map
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
Climate Lobbying Overview: Delta Air Lines appears to have limited, negative engagement with US climate policy. Delta Air Lines has opposed attempts to repeal a tax on jet fuel in the US state of Georgia and appears to support a long-term role for fossil fuels in global aviation. Delta also remains a member of multiple industry associations that actively and negatively lobby against ambitious climate policy including Airlines for America, which has lobbied against national climate regulation for aviation in the US.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Delta Air Lines has disclosed limited communications regarding its top-line position on climate policy in 2020. In its 2019 10-K Report, Delta Air Lines emphasized cost concerns around the potential impact of climate regulation. In its 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report, Delta Air Lines acknowledged some of the science of climate change without disclosing its position on the need to reduce GHG emissions, the need for government regulation, or the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: In 2018-20, Delta Air Lines appears to have had limited, direct engagement with climate policy. Although Delta Air Lines has disclosed the climate regulations it is following in its 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report, it does not appear to disclose any further details on its desired policy outcomes or engagement activities.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Delta appears to have limited transparency and broadly negative engagement regarding the energy transition for global aviation. In 2018-19, Delta Air Lines opposed attempts in Georgia to repeal a tax cut on jet fuel sales. A 2019 statement by Delta Air Lines CEO, Ed Bastian, argued that by “making Georgia the highest jet fuel tax state in the country among States with hub airports, it would make the state less competitive and give commercial aviation reason to grow somewhere other than the state of Georgia”. In a February 2020 interview, Delta Airlines CEO, Ed Bastian, stated that “We will continue to use jet fuel for as far as the eye can see”. Bastian later clarified in the same interview that “we’ll be investing in technologies to reduce the impact of jet fuel, but I don’t ever see a future where we’ll eliminate jet fuel from our footprint”.
Industry Association Governance: Delta Air Lines publicly discloses a list of its memberships to industry associations on its website without disclosing its direct engagement with them on climate change, their climate policy positions, or the company’s role within each association. Delta Air Lines has not published a review of its alignment with its industry associations. In its 2020 CDP response, Delta Air Lines only listed its membership to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which is actively and negatively lobbying global climate policy for aviation, failing to disclose its membership to other climate-relevant trade associations. The CEO of Delta Airlines is on the Board of Directors for Airlines for America, which have negatively and actively lobbied against US climate policy for aviation. A senior executive for Delta Air Lines is a board member of the US Chamber of Commerce, which is actively and negatively lobbying on US climate policy.