CEMBUREAU
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.
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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? |
NS | NS | NA | NS | NS | NS | NA | 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) |
1
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1
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NA |
1
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0
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1
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NA | 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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0
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NA |
0
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1
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0
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NA | NA |
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Support of UN Climate Process
Is the organization supporting the UN FCCC process on climate change? |
0
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1
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NA | NS | NS | NS | NA | 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 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NS |
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Carbon Tax
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: carbon tax. |
-1
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0
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NA |
0
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0
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0
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NA | NA |
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Emissions Trading
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: emissions trading. |
-1
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0
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NA |
0
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-1
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-1
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NA | 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 |
1
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0
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NA |
0
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-1
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1
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NA | 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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0
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NA |
0
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NS | NS | NA | 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? |
0
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0
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NA |
0
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0
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0
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NA | 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 |
0
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0
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NA |
0
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-1
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0
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NA | 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? |
1
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NS | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NS |
Climate Lobbying Overview: CEMBUREAU is strategically engaged with EU regulation, taking mixed positions on climate change policy, having evolved from predominantly negative stances since 2018. The organization takes positive positions on top line ambition such as the EU 2050 climate neutrality goal, but remains negatively engaged on key policies such as the EU Emissions Trading System.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: CEMBUREAU supported the European Green Deal and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in the EU, in a position paper in 2020. However, in response to an EU consultation in January 2020, the association seemed to advocate for a net target, which would allow for actual emissions reductions combined with offsetting to reach carbon neutrality. In the 2019 Activity Report the President, Raoul de Parisot, supported “forward-looking and ambitious policies,” but a joint letter to the EU Commission, signed by the CEO Koen Coppenholle, seemed to stress the risk of carbon leakage and appeared to suggest that climate policy must preserve the competitiveness of industry.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: CEMBUREAU has consistently lobbied to weaken the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and, in 2021, in response to an EU consultation, the organization continued to communicate opposition to various reform measures to increase the stringency of the EU ETS, such as reducing the amount of free allocation of allowances for industry, and has not supported increasing the ambition of the ETS in light of an increased 2030 climate target. In 2021, in response to an EU consultation CEMBUREAU did not support extending the EU ETS to new sectors such as road transport and maritime, but supported creating new sector specific schemes. In a 2020 position paper the association supported the continuation of free allocation under the ETS at least until the end of Phase IV in 2030, a position which does not appear to be in line with the European Commission’s recommendations.
In response to an EU consultation in 2020, CEMBUREAU supported energy efficiency legislation, including the EU’s Renovation Wave initiative, to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, but did not seem to support incentives to renovate instead of demolish and rebuild. Furthermore, in 2020 the CEO Koen Coppenholle supported the initiative to be based on material neutrality and full life-cycle approaches, which could prevent incentives for bio-based materials and which could mean that legislation does not consider cement’s emissions-intensive production process. CEMBUREAU advocated for increasing the Renewable Energy Target in the EU in response to an EU consultation in 2021, but also promoted the inclusion of low-carbon fuels in the Renewable Energy Directive. CEMBUREAU seemed to support 2030 GHG emissions reductions targets in a position paper in May 2020 as an “intermediate goal post” to 2050, but in response to an EU consultation in April 2020 it did not seem to support increasing the 2030 Climate Target above 40%, stressing carbon leakage and the need to respect the current legal framework. The association also seemed to suggest that the 2030 Target should focus on non-ETS sectors in response to an EU consultation in June 2020.
Positioning on Energy Transition: CEMBUREAU seems to have mixed engagement with policy to support the energy transition. In a 2020 position paper, the association advocated for policies to decarbonize the cement industry and the electrification of industry with renewable electricity, but also did not support revising the Energy Taxation Directive to be aligned with the EU’s increased climate ambition. In response to an EU consultation in July 2020, the association did not seem to support phase out dates for fossil fuel heating systems, and in another 2020 EU consultation response it appeared to support a role for fossil gas in the energy mix as a transition fuel, without conditions on the use of CCS. CEMBUREAU supported legislation to increase the production of renewable hydrogen in response to an EU consultation in 2021.