Climate group pushes Big Tech to exit nation’s largest business lobby

Published in The Washington Post on 08/02/2023

by David DiMolfetta

ClimateVoice, a nonprofit which aims to use corporate climate goals to influence climate policymaking, launched a campaign Wednesday pushing tech companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta to end their membership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing the group’s history of lobbying against major climate initiatives across Congress and the executive branch. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.)

“I think all of these companies genuinely care about the climate crisis,” Bill Weihl, a former Google and Facebook sustainability executive and ClimateVoice’s founder, told The Technology 202 in an interview. “They talk about it. They’re investing money and people’s time in addressing it. And in some cases … put real limits on what they’re willing to do.”

“To change that, they need to know that people see the misalignment and hypocrisy in their complicity with the Chamber,” he added.

The campaign is the group’s latest effort to scrutinize the tech sector’s climate initiatives, as record-setting heat and extreme weather events take center stage. It involves a petition drive aimed at the companies’ employees, with the hopes that they push senior executives to distance themselves from the Chamber.

The Chamber, which boasts many members from the oil and gas industry, has opposed several major congressional climate bills. One think tank report found the chamber refuted a number of pro-climate policies its tech giant members backed. A 2021 report from Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab argues the Chamber has been a “central actor” in dissuading climate legislation over a two-decade period. Those include efforts that helped defeat an emissions cap bill led by former congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), after the Chamber deemed the proposal too expensive and regulation-heavy.

“The Chamber has been a forceful advocate for climate solutions through investments in innovation, technology, and resiliency,” Marty Durbin, senior vice president of policy at the Chamber, said in a statement. “We work closely with our members as they invest billions of dollars to help meet ambitious climate goals,” he said, adding that the group plans to lead its largest-ever delegation to the 2023 U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP28 summit, this fall.

“There is no ambiguity or doubt about Microsoft’s commitment to the aggressive steps needed to address climate change,” Microsoft spokesperson Kate Frischmann said in an email. “While we may not agree with every trade association on every policy issue, we regularly assess alignment on climate policy, engage directly to share our point of view, and communicate Microsoft’s position publicly,” the statement adds.

Meta declined to comment. Google and Amazon did not return requests for comment.

ClimateVoice argues tech companies have made significant progress in their operations and supply chains to address ongoing environmental concerns, but that their Chamber affiliation muddles their goals.

Big Tech has set out lofty climate goals, with some aiming for “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade.

Not all tech companies see eye to eye with the Chamber on climate matters. Apple in 2009 ended its membership with the group over disagreements with its comments to an Environmental Protection Agency regarding an initiative for regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

“Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s frustrating to find the chamber at odds with us in this effort,” the company’s former vice president for worldwide government affairs Catherine Novelli wrote in a letter to the Chamber at the time of its departure. “We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue.” Apple did not respond to a request for comment about the ClimateVoice campaign.

Other utility providers including Exelon and PG&E have also ended membership with the Chamber over climate disagreements. Royal Dutch Shell in 2019 made a similar move away from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers group, though it kept its membership with the Chamber, which formed a task force the same year to study how organizations are responding to climate matters.

Tech companies have a history of diverging with industry groups on climate policy: Facebook, Google and Microsoft abandoned right-wing lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) nearly a decade ago over climate disagreements.

Weihl, who was with Facebook at the time of its departure from ALEC in 2014, said that leaving sent a message, though in the long term “it doesn’t stop the obstruction by these groups.”