Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template

The We Mean Business Coalition's Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template guides companies through establishing a baseline, analyzing advocacy activities, and publicly disclosing their alignment with 1.5°C climate goals. It emphasizes the need for board oversight, cross-departmental collaboration, and the management of indirect advocacy through trade associations to ensure corporate lobbying supports science-aligned climate policy pathways.

• The template defines science-aligned climate policy as pathways consistent with the global scientific consensus to limit global temperature rise to as close to 1.5°C as possible, citing the IPCC as the definitive resource and InfluenceMap's Science-Based Benchmarks and the IEA’s Net Zero Roadmap as supplementary tools.
• The first stage of the reporting process involves establishing a baseline and plan, which includes forming a cross-department working group (including Sustainability, Government Affairs, and Legal), engaging the board of directors for oversight, and coordinating with ESG and Finance teams to comply with EU CSRD requirements under ESRS G1-5.
• Companies are advised to conduct a comprehensive review of direct advocacy, which encompasses direct lobbying, political campaign donations, PAC contributions, funding of think tanks or advocacy-active NGOs, the 'revolving door' of placing executives in government, public communications, and legal actions against policies.
• Best practices for reporting indirect advocacy through trade associations include disclosing clear alignment criteria, examining both top-line positions and actual advocacy actions, disclosing annual payments to associations, and implementing a clear escalation strategy for misalignments.
• The final stage of the process focuses on public disclosure and embedding the review into business operations, including the establishment of an annual review process and the use of escalation strategies—such as 'notification of dissatisfaction' or membership termination—to address misaligned trade groups.
• The template is designed to help companies align with the CA100+ Global Standard Indicators, which investors use to assess if corporate advocacy is consistent with the Paris Agreement and science-based targets.

APA

We Mean Business Coalition (2025). Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/WMBC-Corporate-Advocacy-Template.pdf

Chicago

We Mean Business Coalition. Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template. 2025. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/WMBC-Corporate-Advocacy-Template.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=We Mean Business Coalition |title=Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template |date=February 2025 |url=https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/WMBC-Corporate-Advocacy-Template.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wemeanbusinesscoalition2025corporate, author = {{We Mean Business Coalition}}, title = {{Corporate Climate Policy Engagement Reporting Template}}, institution = {We Mean Business Coalition}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/WMBC-Corporate-Advocacy-Template.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }