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CLIMATEWIRE | The day after President Donald Trump won back the White House, the leaders of a climate action coalition backed by Apple and hundreds of other corporate giants put out defiant statement vowing to “fight for the future Americans demand and deserve.”

The message from the America Is All In coalition last November was a rebuke of Trump, who had campaigned on undoing the Biden administration’s historic efforts to reduce U.S. reliance on oil, gas, and coal.

But as Trump’s second administration started to take shape in the weeks after the election — with conservative firebrands picked to lead agencies like the Department of Justice and the Office of Management and Budget — the tone softened from America Is All In, and its top corporate supporters stepped back from the group.

None of the coalition’s leading technology, retail or industrial companies signed the group’s open letter in December reaffirming its commitment to the Paris Agreement, the international climate pledge the coalition was created to defend. The nonsigners included Walmart, Siemens and Apple, the world’s most valuable company, whose policy chief Lisa Jackson was co-chair of the coalition at the time. She stepped down as chair in January, the same month that Apple CEO Tim Cook attended Trump’s inauguration.

Corporate leaders’ retreat from public climate advocacy doesn’t mean companies have abandoned their environmental goals, experts said, but top executives are afraid to talk about those targets in a conservative-dominated Washington. Trump has once again moved to exit the Paris Agreement, eviscerated dozens of climate programs, fired thousands of federal workers, and rooted out diversity initiatives.

“People are pretty freaked out,” said Kaya Axelsson, an American research fellow at the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford, where she works with executives and regulators on climate targets. “Being loud and proud might be risky for companies right now.”

America Is All In didn’t answer questions about its disengaged corporate membership.

“The benefits of clean energy investments are undeniable for American communities and businesses, and America Is All In is determined to make sure they continue,” Elizabeth Lien, the coalition’s program director, said in an email. “We’re making sure the U.S. stays all in on a clean energy future.”

Apple noted that Jackson and the company remain active in the coalition.

“Lisa is proud to continue her leadership with America Is All In as part of the Leaders Circle,” Apple spokesperson Sean Redding said in a one-line statement.

Walmart and Siemens didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Who is still in?

Originally known as We Are Still In, the coalition launched in June 2017 after Trump first announced he was pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, the international deal involving nearly 200 nations that seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

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