Sustainability's Steady March
Cutting through the noise
2025 will be remembered as the year ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) became a political lightning rod. In January, the US withdrew from the Paris Agreement for the second time. Major corporations walked back on diversity commitments. The term "ESG" itself became so divisive that only 33% of corporate communication leaders believe it accurately describes what companies are doing on sustainability issues.
Yet beneath this turbulent surface, a different story emerges from the data. One of quiet resilience and deepening integration.
The Atlantic divide
The transatlantic divergence has never been starker. In the US, 96% of senior communications leaders now believe corporate sector leaders are diluting their ESG commitments. Political pressure has forced a strategic retreat from public pronouncements, with companies rewording, removing, or otherwise tweaking external materials to avoid becoming targets.
Europe tells a more complex tale. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive continues to embed ESG into mandatory compliance, creating a regulatory firewall against rollback. But even here, the EU's attempt to reduce reporting requirements by 25% has created confusion for businesses that invested heavily in the original frameworks. The pressure to dial back regulation to improve competitiveness is mounting.
What people actually think
Public sentiment reveals a more nuanced picture than the political noise suggests. Across 32 countries, 78% agree we are headed for environmental disaster without rapid change to our habits. Concern about climate change impacts has risen in 18 of 27 countries surveyed since 2022. In the US, concern jumped from 61% in 2022 to 69% in 2025 following devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
The gap between awareness and action, however, is widening. Individual responsibility to act is falling globally. Every country surveyed since 2021 shows a decline in the proportion saying "if individuals like me do not act on climate change, we are failing future generations". Among the G7 countries, Japan, the US, Germany, France and Great Britain have all seen double-digit declines in just four years.
This isn't apathy. It's exhaustion. Seventy-one per cent of people say they are already doing all they can to save the environment. The message is clear: don't expect consumers to carry the burden alone. People expect brands and companies to take the lead. We observed in a meta-analysis of our ad testing database that advertising that shows brands taking responsibility performed better than those asking consumers to take the burden.
Strategic silence takes hold
The most significant shift is what the Ipsos Reputation Council analysis calls "Strategic Silence." When asked if they prefer their organisation to speak out or stay quiet on potentially divisive issues, only 21% of communications leaders now prefer to speak out, while 32% prefer to stay quiet and 47% say it depends on the situation.
This isn't retreat. It's recalibration. As one council member explained, "I think we're more likely to stay quiet externally but to make sure that internally people know that they're supported." The work continues behind closed doors, even if the public pronouncements have ceased.
The business case endures
Despite the political headwinds, the fundamental business case for ESG remains robust. Eighty-one per cent of corporate leaders agree ESG initiatives provide a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. This figure holds even in sceptical markets, with 68% in the US agreeing.
More tellingly, 52% of leaders across 19 global markets say ESG is fundamentally changing how businesses operate. This rises to 65% in Europe and 86% in Latin America. The US lags at just 19%, but crucially, 67% of American leaders say stakeholders still perceive their ESG commitments as “authentic and impactful” which is in line with the global figure of 71%. The work continues, even if the megaphone has been put down.
The shift is from proclamation to integration. Finance teams now incorporate climate risk into modelling. Procurement audits labour standards. R&D designs for circularity. This quiet embedding into operational DNA is less visible but infinitely more resilient to political shocks.
Misreading the room
One concerning trend is the disconnect between perception and reality on progress. Just 17% of the UN Sustainable Development Goals are on track, but more than one in four people (27%) overestimate progress, believing we're better prepared for an environmentally and socially sustainable world than we actually are. A still greater proportion (34% across 32 countries) say they simply don’t know.
Source: United Nations https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment
This false confidence could undermine urgency. The UN Sustainable Development Report 2025 found only 35% of SDG targets are either on track or making moderate progress with an alarming 18% in reverse. Over 800 million people are trapped in extreme poverty. Carbon dioxide levels are at the highest in over two million years, and 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing the 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Climate Agreement. Peace and security have worsened, with over 120 million people forced from their homes, more than double the number in 2015. That strategic silence is potentially undermining global progress.
Our COP30 survey brings some clarity to this misperception, 69% across 30 countries believe companies prioritise profit over the environment and put the responsibility of fixing the problem with corporations. Sixty-five per cent support making it mandatory for companies and industries to allocate part of their profits to fund actions against climate change.
Progress persists
Yet signs of hope emerge through the fog. In 2025, renewable energy overtook coal to become the world's largest source of electricity generation for the first time in history. Solar alone covered 83% of the increase in global electricity demand in the first half of 2025, with growth of 306 TWh – roughly equivalent to Italy's entire annual electricity consumption.
The EU reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2.9% in 2024, continuing its trajectory toward the 2030 target of 55% reduction from 1990 levels. Five of the world's largest emitters – the EU, Japan, Mexico, Germany and South Korea – reduced emissions in 2024 even as global emissions hit a record high.
Beyond the acronym
The future of ESG may not include "ESG" at all. For many, the acronym has become unhelpful shorthand for a politicised debate. What remains are the material business imperatives: climate risk management, supply chain resilience, workforce equity and governance integrity.
As Günther Thallinger of Allianz notes:
"We have the technologies to transition to zero-emission energy. What's missing is speed and scale. And the understanding that this isn't about saving the planet. It's about saving the conditions under which markets, finance and civilization itself can continue to operate.”
The companies that thrive will be those that quietly build resilience by weaving sustainable practices into their core strategy. Not because it's good PR, but because it's essential to long-term viability. We are moving from morality to materiality. The conversation may have become divisive, but the data tells a more hopeful story: progress continues, even when the world isn't watching.
Further reading
