think-tank climate accountability non-partisan data-driven corporate-influence class-analysis follow-the-money
related: League of Conservation Voters · AFPM · Enterprise Products Partners · Williams Companies
Who They Are
InfluenceMap is a nonprofit think tank structured as a Community Interest Company (CIC), founded in 2015 by Dylan Tanner (PhD in Theoretical Physics), headquartered in London, UK with offices in New York, Tokyo, Seoul, São Paulo, Canberra, and Toronto. Approximately 75 staff. The organization provides data-driven analysis on how corporations, financial institutions, and trade associations influence climate and biodiversity policy. It operates three main platforms: LobbyMap (tracking 1,000+ companies and 330+ industry associations on climate lobbying), FinanceMap (assessing financial sector climate alignment), and the Carbon Majors database (attributing emissions to specific producers).
The U.S. entity (Influencemap Inc) reported $1.16M in revenue. The UK parent is registered as Company 09480976.
What They Want
InfluenceMap does not engage in direct lobbying or endorse candidates. Its function is exposure — quantifying the gap between corporate climate rhetoric and corporate climate lobbying. It scores companies on an A+ to F scale for climate policy engagement. Its analyses have been referenced by the IPCC, UN, and EU regulatory bodies. In the context of this vault, InfluenceMap is a counter-power institution: it generates the data that environmental groups, investors, and regulators use to hold fossil fuel companies and trade associations accountable.
Who Funds Them
Follow the Money
InfluenceMap is funded by philanthropic foundations. This is relevant context — it means their data independence depends on foundation funding remaining non-conditional. No corporate sponsors are disclosed.
Known funders:
- Quadrature Climate Foundation
- The Sunrise Project
- Laudes Foundation
- ClimateWorks Foundation
- European Climate Foundation
- IKEA Foundation
- Hewlett Foundation
- Wallace Global Fund
- McConnell Foundation (Canada)
What They’ve Exposed
InfluenceMap’s Carbon Majors database update attributed 57% of global CO2 emissions since 2016 to just 80 fossil fuel producers. Its 2024–2025 reports documented growing gaps between corporate climate pledges and actual lobbying behavior, particularly in the automotive and financial sectors. The organization has specifically documented how trade associations like AFPM, the American Petroleum Institute, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobby against climate policy while their member companies make public sustainability pledges.
Vault-relevant findings:
- AFPM identified as one of the top obstructors of climate policy — a direct data point connecting the AFPM donor node to InfluenceMap’s accountability work
- FinanceMap platform expanded to cover asset manager climate voting records
- Climate Action 100+ benchmark methodology developed by InfluenceMap
Class Analysis
InfluenceMap occupies a specific structural position in the political economy of climate: it produces the data that makes corporate climate hypocrisy legible. The A+ to F scoring system and the Carbon Majors database convert abstract lobbying activity into concrete, citable metrics that investors, regulators, and journalists can act on. Its effectiveness depends on maintaining methodological independence — which depends on philanthropic funding that doesn’t come with conditions. The organization faces ongoing criticism from industry groups that characterize its methodology as biased, which is itself a data point about its effectiveness as an accountability mechanism.
Sources
- InfluenceMap: Mission (Tier 3)
- InfluenceMap: Homepage (Tier 3)
- InfluenceMap: Our People (Tier 3)
- InfluenceMap: Carbon Majors 2024 Update (Tier 2)
- InfluenceMap: Impact Report PDF (Tier 3)
- LobbyMap: Methodology (Tier 3)
- UK Companies House: InfluenceMap CIC (Tier 1)
- UK Companies House: Filing History (Tier 1)
- InfluenceWatch: InfluenceMap (Tier 3)
- Wikipedia: InfluenceMap (Tier 4)
- Climate Action 100+: InfluenceMap Benchmark Methodology (Tier 2)
- McConnell Foundation: InfluenceMap funding (Tier 3)
research-status:: draft — Organizational profile, platform descriptions, and funder list documented. Gaps: detailed financial breakdown (UK entity financials not fully extracted), complete funder list with amounts, specific report findings on individual companies tracked in this vault, historical revenue trend. UK Companies House filings available for deeper financial analysis. content-readiness:: draft