Apple, Wal-Mart stick with climate pledge after Trump pivot

Many of America’s biggest corporations, including Apple and Wal-Mart Stores, are sticking by their pledges to fight climate change even as President Donald Trump guts his predecessor’s environmental policies.

Companies say their pledges, coordinated by the Obama administration, reflect their push to cut energy costs, head off activist pressure and address a risk to their bottom line in the decades to come.

“This work is embedded in our business,” Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said in an email. It’s “good for the business, our shareholders and customers; if ultimately we are able to positively impact the environment in the process, that’s a win too.”

Wal-Mart was one of 81 companies that promised to reduce emissions in the run up to the 2015 Paris global climate negotiations. The company upped its targets last November, saying it would get half its power from renewable sources by 2025.

Trump signed an order Tuesday that tells the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider former President Barack Obama’s climate rules, and rescinds a series of orders Obama issued to embed consideration of climate change in government actions from where to lease buildings to whether to allow oil pipelines to be built.

“Most big companies in the U.S. recognize that climate change is real,” Geoffrey M. Heal, a professor at Columbia Business School, said in a telephone interview. “They need to move ahead on the climate change front no matter what Trump’s government does.”

Business’s biggest lobbying force supports Trump on this issue. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce welcomed Trump’s order, calling that shift “vital to stimulating economic growth.” The group argues that Obama’s regulations held back economic growth, preventing business owners from constructing needed pipelines, roads and other infrastructure. It also warned that the climate push would lead to a jump in energy prices.

But many of the group’s members and other corporate titans supported Obama’s Clean Power Plan, or have set their own goals. AnheuserBusch InBev, the world’s largest beer-maker, also announced Tuesday that it would get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

“We believe climate change is real and the science is well accepted,” General Electric’s Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, wrote in an internal blog post shared by the company. “We hope that the United States continues to play a constructive role in furthering solutions to these challenges, and at GE, we will continue to lead with our technology and actions.”