The 2022 Climate Policy Footprint identifies the 25 most negative and influential corporations globally. It combines assessments from InfluenceMap’s recognized platform for assessing corporate climate policy engagement with indicators to judge the relative economic and political clout of each company.
The US oil sector dominates the list, with supermajors Chevron and ExxonMobil retaining the top two spots and four other companies (ConocoPhillips, Marathon Petroleum, Valero and Phillips 66) also making the list. Other oil and gas players identified in the analysis include two Russian companies, Gazprom (9th) and Rosneft (14th). The analysis appears to reflect the extent to which geopolitical events have impacted the development of science-based climate policy in 2022.
BASF has risen up the rankings to place 3rd this year (up from 6th in 2021). This analysis reflects intense European-level policy engagement from the German chemical giant over the last year. Other heavy industry players to make the list are focused in the steel sector, including two Japanese companies, Nippon Steel Corporation (8th) and JFE Steel (20th), alongside ArcelorMittal (22nd).
Another sector which stands out are US utilities, with six companies (Sempra Energy (5th), American Electric Power (6th), Southern Company (7th), Dominion Energy (13th) and Entergy Corp (25th) all making the top 25 most negative and powerful globally.
Placing 10th, Toyota remains the most negative and influential company from the Transport sector, having placed 3rd in 2021. Two German transport companies Lufthansa (15th) and BMW (16th) are also identified on the list, following the companies’ leading efforts to oppose EU climate regulations in 2021-22.
The research demonstrates the importance of policy engagement when considering corporate climate performance and highlights the gaps with mainstream corporate climate targets, indicators, and metrics. For example, 80% of the 25 most negative and influential companies have made net-zero commitments, while 10 are given an A- or higher under CDP’s 2021 climate change disclosure scores.
The climate policy footprint assessment is derived from InfluenceMap's ongoing analysis and rankings of the world's largest corporations and their industry associations on climate policy engagement and combines this with additional indicators to the judge the relative economic size (and hence political power) of each company. It is noted that InfluenceMap's work covers all sectors and companies both positive and negative. This report deals with the most strategically negative corporations. A report analogous to this report but dealing with the world's most positive companies is at the A List of Climate Policy.
It is noted that logos of companies and industry associations are utilized in the graphics associated with the analysis in this report, as is common practice in public facing releases of this kind. This in no way implies agreement and/or endorsement by the entities concerned with the report’s content.