This week: Weaponizing critical minerals; balancing AI's climate impact; SEC still scoping out Scope 3; Exxon’s strategy to downplay climate change

Welcome back. Leaders from business, government, civil society and climate groups are all heading to New York for next week’s climate meeting. The need for urgent action seems clear after the hottest summer on record globally, which brought extreme weather and storms around the world, including the host city’s heat waves and choking smoke from Canadian wildfires. Many warn it is a pit stop on the way to a new normal.

After making ambitious long-term decarbonization promises, the private sector has emerged as a key climate actor navigating a mix of forces: The generous incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act, a vocal political backlash against the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement, more demanding regulation, and increased scrutiny from investors, customers and other stakeholders.

WSJ Pro—in collaboration with the National Association of Corporate Directors—surveyed board directors in July to find out more about their ESG priorities and approach. Rob Sloan writes about the main results.

Why it matters 

Admittedly we face a long and complicated energy transition but we are in the make-or-break decade. Directors’ ESG knowledge and thinking are important given their influence on near-term corporate plans and strategy. It is also helpful to gauge the effect of recent anti-ESG rhetoric, given it is likely to continue for at least this polarized, culture-war electoral cycle.

The survey gives a helpful glimpse inside the boardroom. More scrutiny is coming too, both from rising regulatory crackdowns and climate disclosure requirements—be it in California, Europe or elsewhere around the globe, or eventually even from the SEC.

Tell me what you think: Send me your feedback and suggestions at rochelle.toplensky@wsj.com or reply to any newsletter. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here.

Clean energy investment is up 37% this year, according to the Clean Investment Monitor. Backed by the Rhodium Group and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, the site provides a trove of detailed data about the money going into the transition. 

Artificial intelligence can help tackle climate change, but to fulfill that promise companies need to find a way to limit AI’s own climate impact, writes Nuha Dolby.

Data centers emit about the same amount as the aviation industry and consume hefty amounts of water. As AI grows, the energy required to train and run its large-language models will increase but it can also cut emissions by making systems more efficient.

The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to pore over reactions to its proposal to require extensive climate-related disclosures from public companies, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said, declining to give a timeline for when the rule might move forward, writes Richard Vanderford.

Gensler said the SEC is in particular focusing on how to handle what is known as Scope 3 reporting, the tracking of indirect emissions caused by a company’s supply chain or customers. “We try not to do things against a clock,” Gensler told lawmakers in an oversight hearing Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee. “It’s really when the staff is ready.”

Meanwhile, California legislators have passed a bill, the first of its kind in the nation, that would require large companies that do business there to disclose all emissions tied to both their operations and supply chain, writes Christine Mai-Duc.

Exxon Mobil issued its first public statement that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change in 2006, following years of denial. In public forums, the company argued that the risk of serious impact on the environment justified global action, write Christopher M. Matthews and Collin Eaton.

Yet behind closed doors, Exxon took a very different tack: Its executives strategized over how to diminish concerns about warming temperatures, and they sought to muddle scientific findings that might hurt its oil-and-gas business, according to internal Exxon documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with former executives.

• Minerals can't be weaponized as effectively as oil and gas
• U.S. launches $100 million effort to upgrade EV public chargers
• Homeowners are spending tens of thousands to rewild their lawns
• Ukraine’s push into green energy starts with 5,600 tons of cow dung
• Atomic power is back in vogue, but uranium is in short supply
• How the Panama Canal’s drought is threatening global supply chains
• EU launches an antisubsidy probe into Chinese EV makers
• Countries are falling short of their climate goals, U.N. report says
• How timely rains and seed strength helped U.S. crops survive drought, deluge and the hottest summer on record

• Sponsors of the New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers are putting on a brave face after the star quarterback’s season-ending injury.
   
• Flexport founder Ryan Petersen is back at the top of the digital freight startup, but the hard part of executing on the Silicon Valley-style disruption he promised is still ahead.
   

• 3 ways corporate tax teams are integral for ESG strategy (Green Biz)
• As the Mississippi swerves, will we let nature regain control? (Yale)
• Cutting the risks of climate overshoot (Climate Overshoot Commission)
• Global Witness report on land defenders killed this year 
• Europe's olive & wine farmers turn to tech & tradition (Reuters)
• Why India is rebuffing a coal-to-clean energy deal (Climate Home) 
• Gore blasts fossil fuel capture of U.N. climate agenda (Financial Times) 
• Experts call for a moratorium on geoengineering such as solar radiation management (Guardian) 

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business covers environmental, social and governance issues. Send comments to Bureau Chief Rochelle Toplensky at rochelle.toplensky@wsj.com and follow her on X @RToplensky.