--- title: Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy? description: The anxiety about Trump's tariffs poses a key test for climate targets. But sticking to these goals could help business weather a recession. canonical: https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-04-04T14:50:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:11:50.070Z article:section: Climate og:title: Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy? og:description: The anxiety about Trump's tariffs poses a key test for climate targets. But sticking to these goals could help business weather a recession. og:url: https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37e29cf1d8da360b/6998c58893610cf959c2f840/trump-tariff-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: New York Stock Exchange Opens After Trump's Tariffs Sank Markets on Thursday og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy? twitter:description: The anxiety about Trump's tariffs poses a key test for climate targets. But sticking to these goals could help business weather a recession. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37e29cf1d8da360b/6998c58893610cf959c2f840/trump-tariff-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ea264c75-9f61-4902-a6a1-40e27c3fa43d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 4, 2025 2:50 PM UTC  Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 4\. Stocks fell sharply as the world reacts to U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs on major U.S. trade partners. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 4\. Stocks fell sharply as the world reacts to U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs on major U.S. trade partners. Photo by Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 4, 2025 2:50 PM UTC Wednesday was “liberation day” in the U.S. as President Trump took to the White House Rose Garden to [announce tariffs](https://time.com/7274039/trump-tariff-announcement/) on U.S. allies and competitors alike. Like clockwork, traders sold off stock in markets across the globe, and economists warned that inflation will be higher than anticipated a few months ago. The likelihood of a [recession](https://time.com/7274531/trump-tariffs-is-the-us-heading-into-a-recession-stock-market-fears/) has grown. It would be understandable for a climate concerned person to fear that economic headwinds will be yet another force that slows climate action. Indeed, it’s inevitable that this chaotic moment for markets will push executives to train their eyes on stopping financial bleeding. But that doesn’t mean that businesses will deprioritize or cancel their climate programs. Over the past few years, many firms have transitioned their environmental commitments from long-shot investments or marketing schemes to financially motivated efforts with short-term returns. The economic anxiety ahead poses a crucial test. Has understanding of sustainability’s financial opportunity grown such that companies lean into their climate work, or will executives slip into thinking that climate programs are simply too expensive? **The textbook first thing that businesses do** in response to economic uncertainty is to protect their balance sheet to hold onto as much money as possible for a rainy day down the road. There was a time when climate programs might have seemed like easy things to cut to save money, but that’s not how things are situated today. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, companies very publicly doubled down on measures aimed at addressing climate change and investors poured funds into so-called ESG funds (short for environmental, social and governance). Just as the zero interest rate era fueled bold and often nonsensical investments, so too did the trillions in ESG dollars lead companies to make aggressive environmental commitments that, in some cases, were untethered from financial reality. The last few years have [forced companies to get serious](https://time.com/7026187/climate-week-corporate-pragmatic-action/). Some have looked under the hood and determined that they, in fact, can’t meet their targets, leading them to backtrack. Others have doubled down with an understanding that sustainability programs can help the bottomline. Every company and every sector is different, but the most obvious value of sustainability initiatives in a moment of economic uncertainty is efficiency. Simply put: efficiency brings down costs—and emissions. **Read more:** [_Why Investing in Climate Action During a Recession Is a Smart Business Move_](https://time.com/6275245/climate-change-business-recession/) The other textbook recession advice to businesses is that well-positioned firms should look for opportunities for strategic investment. [Study](https://hbr.org/2019/05/how-to-survive-a-recession-and-thrive-afterward?referral=03551&deliveryName=DM46095) after [study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048733315000827#abs0005) has shown that strategic investment during a recession—while some competitors are cutting wantonly—positions companies to outperform when economic conditions normalize. For forward thinking firms, climate and sustainability is an area ripe for strategic investment. Companies are increasingly facing the real costs of climate change—from facilities hit by extreme weather to supply chain disruptions—which will need to be addressed. And, while the regulatory pressures have faded in the U.S., climate rules remain significant and growing in many of the key geographies around the world, meaning that multinational companies still need to pay attention to sustainability. If this all sounds a little too optimistic, it’s worth looking at what happened during the past two economic downturns. In 2011, as the global economy was still recovering from the Great Recession, a widely cited [paper](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/SSRN-id1964011%5F6791edac-7daa-4603-a220-4a0c6c7a3f7a.pdf) from researchers at Harvard Business School found that “high sustainability” firms financially outperformed their “low sustainability” counterparts over the previous 20 years including the recent downturn. Then in 2020, as the world recovered from the COVID-induced recession, trillions flowed into funds that claimed to prioritize ESG. Of course, there is one elephant in the room that makes circumstances slightly different in this case: the economic certainty today is entirely the result of U.S. policy. In this column, I deliberately avoided trying to parse out the specific impacts of Trump’s tariff regime. While there is some [good early analysis](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-03/how-trade-wars-impact-the-green-transition-what-we-know-so-far) out there already, it is too soon to tell exactly how the new taxes will reshape the global clean technology supply chain—even if we know that a reshaping is inevitable. Amid all of this, the companies that find ways to make climate action financially advantageous may not only weather this storm but emerge positioned for long-term success in a world where both climate impacts and climate solutions continue to reshape markets. (_To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter_ [_here_](https://www.time.com/co2-newsletter)_._) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/"},"headline":"Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy?","datePublished":"2025-04-04T14:50:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:11:50.070Z","description":"The anxiety about Trump's tariffs poses a key test for climate targets.","url":"https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/","keywords":["Leadership Report","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37e29cf1d8da360b/6998c58893610cf959c2f840/trump-tariff-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37e29cf1d8da360b/6998c58893610cf959c2f840/trump-tariff-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York Stock Exchange Opens After Trump's Tariffs Sank Markets on Thursday","caption":"Traders look concerned as the New York Stock Exchange opens after Trump's tariffs sank markets on Thursday","creditText":"Photo by Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/co2-leadership-report/","name":"Leadership Report"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7274930/corporate-climate-goals-recession/","name":"Do Climate Goals Matter in a Bad Economy?"}}]}] ```