"Donald Trump called climate change “a Chinese hoax” and said global emissions goals would be “very hard on our business.” But when the former president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord in 2017, there was no celebrating in the C-suite.
Instead, Corporate America went where the federal government wouldn’t, with companies issuing their own Paris-aligned pledges even without pressure from regulators. The We Are Still In campaign — hundreds of corporate leaders, nonprofits and cities — was born and had an outsized presence at climate meetings that year in Bonn, where several companies committed to targets for cutting emissions.
Now those business leaders have allied with President Joe Biden to push Congress to do its part. Executives who stepped into the vacuum left by Trump say they need Washington to standardize corporate risk disclosure, modernize the electrical grid, price carbon, and put money into technology if the U.S. is to meet its goal on greenhouse gas emissions."