Target 7.3: Double the rate of energy efficiency improvement
By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Global energy intensity improved only about 1 percent in 2024, roughly half the 2010 to 2019 average, against a COP28 pledge to double the rate. The IEA says efficiency investment in buildings, transport and industry must triple from USD 660 billion to about USD 1.9 trillion a year by 2030. Listed manufacturers, equipment makers, building owners and utilities control a large share of that investment and the efficiency of the products they sell. Corporate conduct is therefore a necessary input. Industry lobbying also works against the target. InfluenceMap documents a coordinated fossil fuel campaign against building electrification, in which at least 26 US states enacted laws preempting local gas bans and the Victoria government withdrew plans to move buildings off gas. The American Gas Association and the National Propane Gas Association were among the leading opponents. The 2022 climate lobbying resolution campaign coordinated by Ceres and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) at utilities and industrials is the nearest existing shareholder channel. We found no efficiency-specific shareholder resolution. Building codes, appliance standards and household retrofit incentives are set by governments, and much of the spending sits with households and public bodies. Owners supply a necessary input through corporate investment and lobbying alignment, while governments must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed a climate lobbying proposal at Sempra Energy citing SoCalGas lobbying and litigation against building electrification and clean truck rules.
Coordinated, through Climate Action 100+, the 2022 campaign of 46 climate lobbying shareholder resolutions at oil and gas, utility, consumer goods and technology companies, 18 of which were withdrawn after companies agreed to disclose.
5 campaigns on record
Report on how the company's own lobbying, and the lobbying of the trade groups it belongs to, lines up with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Result: Withdrawn after a negotiated agreement
we found no documented change beyond the agreement Ceres reports
Report on how the company's own lobbying, and the lobbying of the trade groups it belongs to, lines up with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Result: Withdrawn after a negotiated agreement
we found no documented change beyond the agreement Ceres reports
Report on how the company's own lobbying, and the lobbying of the trade groups it belongs to, lines up with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Result: Withdrawn after a negotiated agreement
we found no documented change beyond the agreement Ceres reports
Report on how the company's own lobbying, and the lobbying of the trade groups it belongs to, lines up with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Result: Withdrawn after the company agreed to disclose more about its lobbying
Amgen agreed to added disclosure of its lobbying, according to Ceres
Report on how the company's lobbying, including through SoCalGas, aligns with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, in light of its opposition to building electrification and clean truck policy.
With Calvert Research and Management, Office of the Illinois State Treasurer
Result: 37 percent support at the May 14, 2021 annual meeting
Strong Vote: Shareholders Condemn Sempra Energy's Anti-Climate Lobbying, As You Sow, 2021-05
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.