Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy

The document outlines a framework for responsible corporate engagement in climate policy, emphasizing the need for businesses to align their government affairs and lobbying activities with their corporate responsibility commitments. It identifies five core elements of responsible engagement—legitimacy, opportunity, accountability, consistency, and transparency—and proposes three practical actions: identifying influences, aligning words with actions, and reporting on policy positions.

• There is a significant gap among UN Global Compact signatories between those who publicly advocate for UN goals and those who align their actual government affairs and lobbying activities with their corporate responsibility commitments, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Responsible corporate engagement in climate policy is based on five core elements: legitimacy, opportunity, accountability, consistency, and transparency.
• The guide recommends three practical actions for companies: creating an inventory of direct and indirect influences on climate policy, conducting an internal review via a ten-question checklist to ensure consistency, and using a three-tiered framework to report policy positions and outcomes to stakeholders.
• A subset of 350 UN Global Compact signatories committed to engaging with national governments, intergovernmental organizations, and civil society to create an enabling framework for a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, with 62 per cent of these companies fulfilling the commitment as of the Caring for Climate Progress Report 2013.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy. https://www.wri.org/research/guide-responsible-corporate-engagement-climate-policy

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/guide-responsible-corporate-engagement-climate-policy.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy |url=https://www.wri.org/research/guide-responsible-corporate-engagement-climate-policy |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendguide, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/guide-responsible-corporate-engagement-climate-policy}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }