Climate Lobbying Overview: Ford is heavily engaged on US climate legislation with mixed engagement. The company explicitly supports emissions reductions in line with the below 2°C ambition set out in the Paris Agreement and has signalled strong support for the electrification of transportation. Furthermore, while the company has a history of regressive lobbying against US federal CAFE standards, starting in 2019 Ford began to diverge from it’s US peers, with the company reaching a compromise deal with California on the state’s standards. The company has generally become more positive on the prospect of regulation for the transport sector after this point. However, Ford retains memberships to some regressive trade associations, many of which have been key in opposing climate regulation in the US and EU.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Ford is explicitly supportive of emissions reductions in line with the below 2°C ambition set out in the Paris Agreement. The company appears to broadly acknowledge the role of climate regulation in it’s 2019 Climate Change Scenario, although it specifies some broad exceptions to this support.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Ford has consistently engaged with policymakers on US Federal CAFE standards. Ford’s submissions to the EPA consultation on the standards in October 2018 indicated that Ford did not support Obama-era CAFE standards, and was reflected concerns at the prospect of divergence in Federal and Californian regulation. In January 2019, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. told Reuters “We’re not asking for a rollback, but we’ve got to get everybody at the table, especially California.” Despite this, Ford was part of a group of companies who wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in June 2019 which advocated against the freezing of federal CAFE standards, although it also proposed standards weaker than those set under the Obama Administration.

However, Ford’s strategy appeared to change and in July 2019 Ford entered into a voluntary agreement with California regulators that accepted the state's GHG emission standards and Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) programs. In November 2020, Ford Americas President Kumar Galhotra sent a letter to other automakers asking them to support the California deal.

Positioning on Energy Transition: Ford states that it supports the electrification of transportation in it’s 2018 Sustainability Report, published in 2019. In the same report it highlights a number of advocacy positions including pushing for the maintenance of the US EV Tax Credit and not advocating against California’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. In a January 2019 interview with Bloomberg, Bill Ford Jr stated his support for electrifying transport, emphasizing support for electric infrastructure. In October 2020 it was reported that Ford was generally supportive of the proposed Zero-Emission Vehicles Act, which would create a federal national zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) standard and address climate change by ending U.S. sales of new ICE vehicles. Furthermore, a Politico report from May 2021 suggests Ford was advocating for increased US spending on electric vehicle infrastructure.

Industry Association Governance: Ford has briefly discussed it’s work with trade associations in its 2018 Sustainability Report, and has disclosed a list of trade groups it has membership of in the US, but provides no further details on these groups' climate policy positions, or Ford's alignment or influence in this regard. Ford has not completed an audit of it’s trade associations. The company retains memberships to a number of regressive trade associations including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (now the Alliance for Automotive Innovation), BusinessEurope, Business Roundtable, European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), German Automotive Association (VDA) and the US Chamber of Commerce.

A detailed assessment of the company's industry association review can be found on our CA100+ webpage here.