How to Talk About Climate Change Amid the Partisan Divide

President Donald Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, yet many customers, employees and members of the public still support programs to achieve environmental sustainability.

Meanwhile, major U.S. banks and investment firms in recent months have also dropped out of U.N.-sponsored Net Zero coalitions dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In this politically polarized era, corporate communication teams face a dilemma: How to reach one audience without alienating the other. Yet public support for climate-change initiatives is often underestimated.

Corporate messages about climate change have gone from one extreme to the other, like the weather. From cheerleading and greenwashing to greenhushing in a few years.

The traditional public relations approach of spinning everything doesn’t work with Environmental Social and Governance practices. It sometimes leads to the “pat-ourselves-on-the-back” messages that turn off consumers and investors, we wrote in August 2022 when criticism of ESG was mounting. Or it prompts charges that companies have forgotten about profits.

We propose a different approach ― brand journalism ― which uses data and storytelling to show what your company is doing without trying to spin the facts. Focus on the finances.

Now is the time to craft a new climate-change comms strategy. When you do, we offer three points to keep in mind.

What people say
Companies began adopting more sustainable business practices because many people wanted them to. That was true three years ago. Despite the recent negative publicity, that’s still the case. For example:

• Sixty-one percent of Americans are concerned about global warming, according to Gallup survey results updated in December 2024.
• Nearly half of nearly 19,000 consumers in 10 countries said they would pay a sustainability premium of 5% or more, according to a survey by consulting firm Bain & Co. released in September 2024. Some studies have reached different results.
• About half of Gen Z and millennials say their colleagues are putting pressure on their employers to take action on climate change, according to a survey of nearly 23,000 respondents worldwide by Big Four accounting firm Deloitte, released in May 2024.
• Sixty-nine percent of Americans say large businesses and corporations are doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October. Among Republicans, 51% agree with that statement.

A common view is that public pressure prompts companies to take stands on political issues, but the push may just as often come from within, according to new research by Professor Brayden King of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Ann McKean, a researcher with the University of Utah.

“Alignment between top management and employees is likely part of the conversation when companies are considering whether to take a stand,” King told Kellogg’s news site.

Point No. 1 Survey information is noteworthy, but it’s more important to know what your company’s CEO, senior leaders, customers and employees all think about climate change.

The undecided
It’s unlikely to win over people who deny that human activity causes climate change. But there are many people who haven’t made up their mind.

For example, among Republicans and those who lean toward that party, 56% say climate policies hurt the U.S. economy, while 16% say the policies help the economy, Pew found in a survey conducted in October.  But 26% say the policies make no difference, Pew found.

(Just 13% of Democrats say those policies hurt the economy.)

Likewise, 44% of Republicans and those who lean toward that party say human activity contributes not too much or not at all to climate change, while 20% say it contributes a great deal. But 35% say that activity contributes some to climate change.

(Among Democrats, 70% say human activity causes climate change.)

Point No. 2: Don’t preach to the converted. Don’t assume that your audience agrees that your climate-change efforts are a good idea. Aim for those who can be persuaded.

Back to basics
Traditional public relations and marketing, because of the tendency to brag and boast, are poor tools to persuade those undecided folks. We’ve proposed a different, fact-based approach, which is gaining support.

A majority of executives say measuring the return on investment of sustainability initiatives strengthens their company’s storytelling, according to a report by The Conference Board released last month. Nearly half say focusing on ROI helps address backlash.

ROI is “a critical factor in gaining stakeholder trust and ensuring long-term success.” Matteo Tonello, head of benchmarking and analytics at the Board, wrote this month in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

Joe Kaeser, the former CEO of Siemens AG, wrote this month about ESG: “We need to be practical about it ― if there is no commercially feasible return, we shouldn’t prioritize it.” 

Kaeser wrote on the website of the World Economic Forum. He’s now chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Energy, a 2020 spinoff from the conglomerate.

Meanwhile, individual investors make decisions based on  ESG news stories, according to a study of 54,000 ESG news events and the stock trading in 3,300 companies co-authored by Edward Watts, a professor at the Yale School of Management.

Point No. 3 Remember what makes ESG different from other socially responsible investment strategies: finances. That’s why we recommend a fact-based approach: brand journalism, adapting the techniques of reporting and storytelling that journalists employ.

Work ahead
Senior leaders will likely be grateful for a change in how the company talks about climate change programs.

While 69% of CEOs say they have adapted climate-related terminology, 66% say they aren’t prepared to withstand shareholder scrutiny about climate change, according to a report by Big Four accounting firm KPMG released in November 2024.

There’s plenty of work ahead, starting in the C-Suite. They’ll welcome the help.

Tom Corfman is a lawyer and a senior consultant with Ragan Consulting Group, where he leads the ESG communications practice. We can help with your corporate social responsibility or climate-change reports. Get our free download here.

Contact our client team to learn more about how we can help you with your communications. Follow RCG on LinkedIn and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.