16 June 2025 - New challenges mean business climate leadership must go mainstream, writes Eliot Whittington, Chief Systems Change Officer at CISL and Director of the Corporate Leaders Groups. First published in the FT Sustainable Views.
Twenty years of working with senior corporate leaders has brought much progress. Now we must work differently to scale up change.
What is the role of business in delivering, supporting and advocating for climate action?
Twenty years ago, I suspect the consensus answer from many involved in policy and systems change would have been that business needs to get out of the way and stop blocking. The idea that there was a positive role for business to play was seen as far-fetched — the dominant business voices were known for complaining that environmental action was a threat to competitiveness.
It was into this context that in 2005, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership brought together its first Corporate Leaders Group — a group of senior business leaders willing to act as a positive partner to the government on the establishment of effective climate policies.
The concrete example of leading companies actively calling for regulations was revolutionary. The insight that they were acting on — that managing and reducing the impact of climate change is good for the economy — remains key.
We have come a long way since then as our recent report Shape or be Shaped shows.
The UK has moved from a country considering the prospect of a 60 per cent cut in its climate change-causing emissions, to making good progress against a legally binding net zero target. Since the world struck a global agreement, countries around the world have delivered a huge range of targets and investments, scaling up key sectors such as renewable energy and electric vehicles.
In the business community, a wealth of partnerships, organisations and initiatives have sprung up to enable the growing wave of tens of thousands of businesses working to support climate action and the shift to a more sustainable economy.
At the same time, the scale of this challenge has become more apparent. Climate impacts are no longer abstract future risks but present realities affecting supply chains, operations and entire industries. The wildfires, floods and extreme weather events of recent years have made clear that companies need to not just worry about competitive disadvantage but also existential business risks.
This transformation reveals both how far we have come and how much further we need to go.
Voluntary corporate action not enough
Business is now widely understood to have a role to play on climate. But voluntary corporate action, while essential, cannot solve climate change alone. Companies still find themselves trapped in a system that rewards short-term thinking and allows environmental costs to be externalised.
While many sectors have achieved the scale and innovation required to allow new sustainable ways of working to outcompete the past, in too many sectors a manufacturer investing in clean technology faces the same fundamental problems as in 2005 — being undercut by competitors who avoid these costs.
The companies set up to navigate this challenge most strategically are those paying attention to their footprint, while thinking about how to draw their strengths, including their public affairs function. Some businesses are moving beyond a defensive anti-regulation approach to actively helping design frameworks that drive innovation and create competitive advantages.
Greater challenges
Of course, the political environment has become more challenging. Recent years have seen climate policy become increasingly politicised, with green policies caught in broader cultural and economic battles. The rise of populist movements and concerns about economic competitiveness have created new obstacles for climate action.
None of that obscures the need for business to find its way to the table and positively make the case for smart regulation and policy frameworks that can accelerate climate-savvy innovation, shift investment into sustainable business models, and drive the transition of the economy.
The case is stronger than ever — the value at stake more visible and material than it has ever been. But the need to work differently and more effectively is also pressing.
For CISL as we reflect on our 20 years of running our Corporate Leaders Groups, we are thinking about how can we scale up our work. This means making sure the message is resonant and connects with the priorities with which governments are grappling. It also means drawing together a larger and more mainstream group of businesses, and looking at where the practical pathways and examples are that can give everyone confidence in potential progress.
A partnership between business and government that supports climate action remains essential, but it must evolve to meet the challenges of our current moment.
First published in the FT Sustainable Views
