From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… If Cook were to publish an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal pointing out that climate has become a business risk … it would change the corporate game. …”

It’s time for Apple to wield its influence on climate policy

Instead of driving change at a societal level, it’s exclusively focused on its own impacts. 

By Auden Schendler, Bill Weihl August 14, 2025

Key Takeaways:

• Like many tech companies, instead of driving change at the societal level, Apple has almost exclusively focused climate efforts on its own impacts.
• But by using power, lobbying force, political influence and more, the company could change the corporate climate game.
• With climate deniers running federal divisions, in the absence of government, corporations are one of the most powerful agents of change.

The opinions expressed here by Trellis expert contributors are their own, not those of Trellis.​

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In its 2024 Environmental Progress Report Apple noted, “We owe it to our global community to rise to the challenge of climate change with all the innovation, empathy and commitment we can muster.”  

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But noble as these operational efforts are, they’re a category error — like turning the stove off as a way to stop a house fire.

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Breaking a taboo

If Cook were to publish an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal pointing out that climate has become a business risk and that federal regulation (not just incentive-based legislation) is essential, it would change the corporate game. 

Because Apple is so admired, the move would galvanize other business leaders and silence elected officials tipping back into climate denial. Cook could single-handedly break the taboo against business advocating for regulation. Next, he could charge his company with reaching out to customers, asking for their help to pressure elected officials. (Most consumers care about climate change.) 

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The Trump administration has flipped the calendar back more than 20 years, to an era when people didn’t even believe the planet was warming. With climate deniers running all federal divisions, and agencies either gutted or weaponized in support of fossil fuel expansion, we have limited tools in the climate fight. In the absence of government, corporations are one of the most powerful agents of change. And one of the most effective tools they have is their influence.

…Read more: https://trellis.net/article/apple-could-be-a-major-force-in-limiting-climate-change-why-isnt-it/

Authors Auden Schendler and Bill Weihl obviously didn’t get the memo about Apple’s growing AI desperation, because Apple may be in a lot of trouble on the AI front – they are late joiners to a race where there is only one first prize.

Tim Cook Defends Apple’s AI Delay: ‘We’ve Rarely Been First’

Friday August 1, 2025 3:07 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to employees at an all-hands meeting today, providing some insight into Apple’s work on AI. According to Bloomberg, Cook said that AI is going to be bigger than smartphones and the internet, and that it’s a priority for the company.

“Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab. We will make the investment to do it,” Cook told employees.

Cook pointed out that Apple has dominated several markets even when the company wasn’t first to the technology. “We’ve rarely been first. There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod,” Cook said, suggesting that Apple will play a major role in transforming AI in the future.

…Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/08/01/tim-cook-apple-all-hands-meeting-ai/

AI is the big game changer which has upended sincere tech giant pledges to prioritise Net Zero.

Facebook Commissions a 2GW Fossil Fuel Powered Data Center

Forbes: AI is Driving Corporations to Abandon Climate Commitments

The few greens I have personal contact with are struggling to adjust to the energy guzzling AI future. They hate AI – but they feel helpless to stop it, and kind of wish it would all go away.

But all the kids are using AI powered apps and games, so Gen Alpha is lost to any incarnation of the green movement which threatens to take away their toys.

Tech companies are also backpedaling, ditching climate pledges completely, or issuing obviously weak policy statements, as external pressure from investors and internal pressure from elite software teams who fear becoming obsolete if they aren’t building AI systems overwhelms whatever green conscience they once thought they championed.

Judgement day is inevitable – for the climate movement. AI and fossil fuel will dominate the foreseeable future. The pathetic whining of greens begging companies like Apple to stand up for the values they once claimed were central to their corporate ethos are the death rattles of a failed green virtue signalling movement, which only a decade ago threatened to ruin Western civilisation.

Reuters: The Renewable Energy Transition has Failed