In the last several years, more companies have focused on climate investment—and it looks like that will not change in the economic downturn.
Key Details
- For the first time, the U.S. has committed more to Europe in climate-policy initiatives by providing incentives for companies through the inflation reduction act.
- World governments aren’t the only ones making climate investment a part of their agendas. Business leaders continue to emphasize company focus on climate issues, despite the economic downturn and likely recession.
- “This has been the discussion all week. If there is an economic slowdown, is this going to change the commitment that CEOs have made to decarbonization? It hasn’t yet. I don’t even think it has changed the pace … I think there’s a recognition that time is critical, and there is a lot to get done,” Johnson Controls CEO George Oliver tells Fortune.
Why it’s news
Companies have increasingly become more involved in climate initiatives, whether that be a focus on reducing the company’s own carbon footprint or investing in causes to reduce global emissions.
In the face of an economic downturn, one might assume that climate initiatives would be among the first programs cut when businesses look to save money. However, comments from CEOs indicate that this won’t necessarily be the case. Many initiatives—investments into clean energy, for example—will be cost-saving endeavors.
Comments from CEOs at the World Economic Forum this week reaffirm positions leaders expressed late last year. Even though the threat of recession is stronger and more layoffs are coming from the tech sector, CEOs are not changing their minds on climate focuses.
“This is very important to our customers, and we’re going to invest in it no matter what the economic cycle is. Because who wants to have left a company that made the world worse at the end of it?” Thermo Fisher Scientific CEO Marc Casper told Fortune in October.
There is a growing expectation that businesses should participate in making the world a better place. The recent Edelman Trust Barometer found that in the countries surveyed, businesses are more trusted than governments, media, and non-governmental organizations.
As trust in businesses has grown, so has the public’s expectation of those businesses. The same survey found that respondents feel companies should do more to solve climate issues and economic inequality.
Business leaders are aware of the expectations the general public has in companies, and a majority of them are intent on preserving initiatives to preserve the planet.