NextEra Energy
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.
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. . |
EU Register
Information provided by to the voluntary EU Transparency Register. |
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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 | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
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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 |
1
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NS | NS | NS | NA |
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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? |
0
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NS | NS |
2
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NS |
1
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NS | NA |
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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 | NA |
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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? |
-2
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NA |
-2
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NA | NA | NA | NS | NA |
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Carbon Tax
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: carbon tax. |
NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
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NS | NS | NA |
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Emissions Trading
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: emissions trading. |
NS | NS | NS |
1
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1
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NS | NS | NA |
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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 |
1
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-1
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NS | NS | NA |
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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 |
1
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1
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NS |
0
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-1
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0
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1
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NA |
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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? |
1
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0
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NS |
1
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0
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0
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1
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NA |
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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 |
2
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NS |
1
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2
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2
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NS | NA |
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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 |
-2
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NA | NA | NA | NS | NS |
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
CEO of NextEra principal subsidiary Florida Power & Light Company is on the Chamber's board of directors.
Eric Silagy
Open PDF file of Data Source
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
CEO of NextEra principal subsidiary Florida Power & Light Company is on the Chamber's board of directors.
Eric Silagy
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: NextEra’s engagement with climate change policy is generally positive, though the company has advocated against some energy efficiency and renewable energy policies in recent years. Further, the company’s industry association relationships are generally at odds with positive advocacy on climate policy.
Top-Line Messaging on Climate Policy: Overall, NextEra lacks significant top-line statements on climate policy, as evident in its 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility report. The company does not appear to have taken a position on the Paris Agreement in recent years, and centers a majority of its statements on climate action around its own operations.
Engagement With Climate-Related Regulation: NextEra appears to have lobbied on climate-related regulations in the US with mixed positions. In 2020, the company joined a coalition requesting the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to convene a conference to investigate integrating carbon pricing into US electricity markets. The company’s recent positions on different energy efficiency bills appear to be inconsistent. In March 2018, the company opposed Iowa legislation which would undermine energy efficiency initiatives across the state. However, in 2019, subsidiary Florida Power & Light (FPL) reportedly lobbied to significantly reduce Florida’s energy efficiency target. NextEra’s positions on renewable energy legislation also appear contradictory. While CEO Jim Robo communicated a positive vision for the overall increase of renewable generated power in the US in 2019, October 2020 comments from subsidiaries FPL and Gulf Power to Florida’s Public Service Commission push against pro-distributive renewable energy regulations in Florida that would further support customer-owned renewable generation.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Although NextEra is generally supportive of the need to shift towards a low-carbon energy mix in its 2020 ESG report, the company’s direct advocacy has taken a somewhat mixed position on the energy transition. In 2018 comments to FERC, the company expressed support for the expansion of PJM’s (a regional capacity market) Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR), which was accepted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The rule appears to protect fossil fuel electricity-generating units and hinder the proliferation of renewable energy within the capacity market. Statements from CEO Jim Robo suggest the company’s support for a continued role of natural gas in the energy mix, explaining in 2019 that he considers natural gas pipelines "clean energy," while referring to protests against them as "surprising" in 2020. In a March 2020 consultation feedback to a review of federal environmental permitting for energy projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, NextEra supported the inclusion of climate considerations but with several reservations, including the need for gas pipelines to still be considered favorably under such an analysis. Conversely, the company has strongly supported policymaking to support the electrification of transportation in Florida, evident in November 2020 comments that include a call for a statewide Zero Emission Vehicle standard.
Industry Association Governance: NextEra has disclosed a list of its membership in industry associations but provides no further detail on these organizations’ climate policy positions or the company’s alignment with them. NextEra retains a board-level position on the American Wind Energy Association, a group actively supporting an ambitious climate agenda in the US. However, the company also maintains memberships to various other groups that have taken more negative lines on US climate policy, including the Edison Electric Institute and the Consumer Energy Alliance. Through subsidiary FPL, the company is a board-level member to the US Chamber of Commerce, which has successfully campaigned for the rollback of several key US climate policies since 2016. The company is also a member of the Business Roundtable, which has begun to demonstrate a nominally positive shift on climate policy following historically mixed positions.