In the face of partisan politics, Biden’s climate goals need corporate leadership to become a reality

When the Trump administration stepped away from climate action, it was the country’s cities, states, businesses and investors who maintained and ramped up efforts to put the United States on the path to a zero-emissions transformation.

Now the White House is back in the fight and galvanizing other countries to follow suit. President Joe Biden has promised to begin slashing U.S. emissions this decade, in a way that rebuilds the economy, spurs job growth and regenerates nature. But with the prospects of comprehensive federal policy in question, we need private-sector leadership to turn this political ambition into reality.

We call it the “ambition loop” — the private sector and local governments jump out ahead of national policies, demonstrating that they can do more. That gives national lawmakers space to set more enabling policies, which allows businesses, investors, states and cities to go farther again, and so on. 

We are seeing this already in cities that are banning the use of fossil fuels, doubling down on clean energy, and moving faster and farther on electric vehicles (EVs) than the federal government. And for years now, many U.S. corporations have begun to respond to the climate crisis in ways that will reverberate across sectors and global supply chains. 

Among America’s tech leaders, Microsoft aims to be carbon-negative by 2030, Apple will fully decarbonize its supply chain by 2030, and Amazon is urging companies to join its race to net-zero by 2040. Citigroup and Bank of America joined a new alliance of banks aiming for net-zero operations and portfolios by 2050. General Motors, the country’s largest automaker, is shooting for net-zero emissions by 2040; Ford, the second-largest automaker, by 2050.

In a country that is recovering strongly from the economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and revived its climate ambitions in the space of a few months, corporate climate leadership like this should be the norm — not the exception. But some boardrooms seem not to have received the memo yet. 

Through the United Nations-backed Race to Zero and Race to Resilience campaigns, we’re mobilizing businesses, investors, cities and regions to set robust commitments to reach net zero emissions in the 2040s and build resilience by 2030 for the 4 billion people most at risk from climate change now. 

Some of the world’s biggest economies are already seizing these opportunities, bringing potential consequences for U.S. companies doing business overseas. 

The UK will ban the sale of gas- and diesel-fuelled vehicles by 2030 and only allow zero-emissions vehicles from 2035. The European Union is looking to tighten its carbon emissions performance standards for cars and impose a carbon price on imports of certain goods. And with the U.S.’s biggest economic competitor, China, now also committed to climate neutrality by 2060, the stakes could not be higher.

Yet, U.S. partisan politics have dampened the prospects for the strong climate and clean energy measures that Biden proposed in the American Jobs Act.

Businesses, investors and local governments have the opportunity to change this. They can put climate action at the heart of their decision-making, helping to put the U.S. on course to achieve the new 50 to 52 percent emission reduction target by 2030. They can also advocate for legislation that builds a more just and resilient economy and prioritizes investment in clean infrastructure and green innovation — as the America Is All In coalition is now doing on Capitol Hill. They must show that they can and want to do more — by advocating for strong policies at home and channelling their global economic clout into driving up demand for low-carbon solutions across supply chains, particularly in manufacturing hubs in Asia.

After all, America’s CEOs, governors and mayors put the country in the race to zero when they declared “we are still in” back in 2016.  With the global race to decarbonize now running at full speed, the window for American businesses, investors, cities and states to get out in front is closing. The opportunity for leadership is now.

Gonzalo Muñoz and Nigel Topping are UN high-level champions for climate action for the COP25 and COP26 climate summits.