United Airlines
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? |
NS | NS | NA | NS |
1
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1
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1
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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) |
NS |
1
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NA | NS |
0
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1
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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 | NA | 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 | NA | 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? |
-2
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NA |
0
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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. |
NS | 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 |
0
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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 |
-1
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0
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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 |
-2
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-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 |
0
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0
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0
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NS | NS | NS |
0
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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? |
-1
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NA |
0
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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, Government Affairs & Global Public Policy, of United Airlines, Terri Fariello, is on the Board of Directors for the US Chamber of Commerce
Terri Fariello
Open PDF file of Data Source
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
InfluenceMap Comment:
The Senior Vice President, Government Affairs & Global Public Policy, of United Airlines, Terri Fariello, is on the Board of Directors for the US Chamber of Commerce
Terri Fariello
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: United Airlines appears to have mixed, albeit limited, engagement on climate change. United Airlines has expressed top-line support for climate action and the energy transition in the aviation sector, but the company has also opposed jet fuel taxes in the EU and the US. United Airlines remains a member of multiple trade associations opposing climate legislation, including Airlines for America, which has negatively and actively lobbied against US climate policy for aviation.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: In December 2020, United Airlines communicated broad support for increased GHG emissions reductions for aviation, urging the industry to commit to going beyond offsetting measures to reduce its climate impact. A statement by United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby in December 2020 supported the need for aviation to reduce its absolute emissions through sustainable aviation fuels and carbon capture and sequestration. However, evidence from the 2019 10-K report of United Airlines emphasizes cost concerns around climate regulation, and United Airlines does not appear to have explicitly supported the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: United Airlines appears to have low transparency regarding its positioning and engagement with aviation climate policy in 2018-20. United Airlines in 2020 does not appear to provide a clearly identifiable disclosure of its climate-relevant policy positions and lobby on its website, with no evidence found on its website regarding its engagement with climate policy.
In its 2020 CDP disclosure, United has disclosed some engagement with energy efficiency and global climate measures at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) but does not disclose clear positions on such policies. Similarly, United Airlines’ 2019 10-K report describes the EU ETS and the ICAO CO2 standard without disclosing their engagement or positioning regarding such legislation.
Positioning on Energy Transition: United Airlines appears to have negative engagement regarding policies promoting the energy transition for aviation, with some limited positive CEO communications. In a 2020 response to an EU consultation on the Energy Tax Directive, United Airlines stated opposition to a proposed EU fuel tax, questioning the legality of the proposal. In September 2018 United Airlines appeared to oppose a proposed New Jersey jet fuel tax, which a United Airline executive criticized for promoting “few flights and less job growth” and described as “unlawful” as collected taxes would be used for non-aviation purposes. Contrastingly, in a December 2020 blog post, United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, stated support for transitioning towards a lower-carbon aviation industry by promoting sustainable aviation fuels and carbon capture and sequestration Notably, in the same post, he criticized carbon offsetting for aviation, emphasizing the need to take “the harder, better path of actually reducing the emissions from flying”.
Industry Association Governance: United Airlines publicly discloses a partial list of its memberships to industry associations on its website without disclosing its direct engagement with them on climate change, their climate policy positions, and the company’s role within each association. United Airlines has not published a review of its alignment with its industry associations. Senior executives from United Airlines are board members of Airlines for America and International Air Transport Association (IATA), who are actively lobbying against ambitious climate policy in the US, and globally, respectively. A senior executive for United Airlines is a also board member of the US Chamber of Commerce, which is actively and negatively lobbying US climate policy.