Tricks of the Trade

The report analyzes 1,824 public responses to a 2013 CDP questionnaire to reveal that many companies fail to disclose their influence on climate policy through trade associations. It finds that companies often hold climate positions inconsistent with the associations they fund or lead, yet struggle to influence those groups' agendas. The authors argue that current U.S. laws allow corporations to obstruct climate action without accountability and call for the SEC to mandate the disclosure of both direct and indirect political activities.

• A significant number of companies avoid public disclosure of their climate-related political activities. Out of 5,557 companies that received the CDP climate change questionnaire, only 1,824 (33 percent) provided public responses. Notable non-participants included 97 Global 500 companies, such as Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, and 166 companies from the S&P 500, including Comcast and the Southern Company.
• Many companies do not report their influence on climate policy through trade associations, despite the prevalence of such activity. Only 57 percent of companies responding publicly to the CDP questionnaire indicated they influence climate policy via trade groups, although this figure rises to 72 percent among Global 500 companies.
• Companies frequently fail to disclose their seats on the boards of major trade associations even when specifically asked. For the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), only one in five publicly responding board-member companies acknowledged their seat. For the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (COC), only one company (UPS) out of 32 public respondents disclosed its board membership.
• There is a notable disconnect between the climate policy positions of companies and the trade associations they belong to. Ninety-five companies reported that at least one of their trade groups held a position partially or wholly inconsistent with their own. For example, The Clorox Company stated its position was inconsistent with the NAM because Clorox supports national climate legislation while the NAM has challenged EPA greenhouse gas regulations.
• Companies report significant difficulty in influencing the climate positions of their trade associations. Board members from Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell indicated they had limited ability to direct or advocate for major positive climate legislation within the American Petroleum Institute (API). Some companies, like General Electric (GE), choose to advance climate goals through other coalitions because they find influencing their trade associations unproductive.
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has faced pressure to require publicly traded companies to disclose political activities, but has resisted doing so. A 2011 petition for such a rule gained over 640,000 signatures, yet the SEC removed the rule from its 2014 agenda following opposition from 29 trade and business groups, including the COC and NAM.

APA

Goldman, G., & Carlson, C. (2014). Tricks of the Trade. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/tricks-of-the-trade.pdf

Chicago

Goldman, Gretchen, and Christina Carlson. Tricks of the Trade. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/tricks-of-the-trade.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Goldman |first1=Gretchen |last2=Carlson |first2=Christina |title=Tricks of the Trade |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=January 2014 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/tricks-of-the-trade.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goldman2014tricks, author = {Goldman, Gretchen and Carlson, Christina}, title = {{Tricks of the Trade}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2014}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/tricks-of-the-trade.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }