The CEO Climate Dialogue

Climate change has created—and will continue to create—immense economic impacts that disrupt corporate business models and affect people’s livelihoods. Faced with this reality, many business leaders are eager to advance a cleaner energy future. However, there are limited opportunities for CEOs to collaborate and identify shared priorities for new federal climate change legislation.

To meet this need, CEOs from several Fortune 500 companies and national environmental NGOs came together in 2016 to launch the CEO Climate Dialogue. As the group’s facilitator from August 2016 through December 2020, Meridian helped business and environmental leaders collaborate with each other—and with lawmakers—to develop bold and business-friendly climate policies.

The CEO Climate Dialogue has brought increased attention to the role of business leaders from high-emitting industries who are willing and able to push for significant carbon emissions reductions through policy.

The CEOs and their staff called on Meridian to serve as the group’s strategic advisor and facilitator in their exploration of bipartisan federal climate legislation. Meridian guided the group of participating CEOs and their staff as they advanced federal climate policies that meet six basic principles. Meridian also supported CEO Climate Dialogue members in their work with Congressional leaders to advance legislation based on those guiding principles.