Welcome back: Proxy statements are investor filings released every year ahead of a listed company’s annual shareholder meeting. They outline to shareholders its future plans, from the election of directors to executive pay, to approval or amendment of equity plans. They include any policy that requires a vote at the AGM. The language in these filings offers an insight into a company’s priorities and goals.

Data compiled by WSJ Pro shows the number of proxy statements containing the term “net-zero” plummeted 32% year-to-date compared with the same period in 2024, while mentions of “carbon-neutral” fell 30%. The number of documents that mentioned Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions—an amount that had been steadily rising since 2022—dropped 24%.

We searched more than 10,000 documents for the first five months of each year since 2022. Terms were counted only when they appeared in the context of statements regarding emissions or greenhouse gases. The proxy-statement data were pulled from Factiva, a product of Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

One  reason for the decline in climate-related terms might be the decline in activist-shareholder proposals pressing companies to do better on their environmental goals. A report from proxy-advisory service ISS from late May counted 229 environmental and social proposals in proxy statements this year, raising everything from emissions worries to human-rights abuses. That was down from 417 last year.

Another reason could be that some companies don't feel sustainability and climate issues are a priority right now.

Read on for more on this story and other sustainability news.

American Airlines highlighted its focus on “ambitious climate goals” in a report last year. In a similar filing a few weeks ago, that phrase was gone, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson and Jon Leckie report.

Companies from grocery chain Kroger to retailer American Eagle Outfitters have lopped certain sections or phrases on their climate efforts in their proxy statements in recent weeks. In its report last year—but not this year—Kroger said it was “committed to reducing the impact of our business on the climate and assessing the potential future risk of a changing climate to our business operations.”

“We have not changed our approach to climate and remain focused on achieving our 2030 goals to create a cleaner, healthier planet,” a Kroger spokesperson said this week.

The same goes for American Eagle Outfitters, which in its 2024 proxy statement said it “continues to work to reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions and reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods, services and capital goods.” There is no mention of emissions in the 2025 report it released in mid-May.

In southern Utah, Houston-based Fervo is spending more than $2 billion to build what it says is the world’s largest enhanced geothermal project. The enterprise, backed by Bill Gates’s climate-tech venture-capital firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures, harnesses technological advances pioneered by oil and gas drillers to tap in to underground heat, the WSJ's Benoît Morenne writes.

Fervo says it can help sate power-hungry data centers, electric vehicles and industries. But how rapidly it can do so partly hinges on Republicans salvaging billions of dollars in clean-energy tax credits. The GOP-led House last month voted to gut most of the credits as part of President Trump’s tax and spending megabill; the Senate is taking up the package this week.

Without the subsidies, Fervo will have to rely on customers willing to pay more for clean power and won’t scale as fast as it could, Gates said.

Unlike intermittent wind and solar—the main targets of Republicans’ spending cuts—geothermal generates steady, round-the-clock power. The sector is poised to expand under Trump. The president has directed federal agencies to speed up its development, lawmakers are working across the aisle to push legislation to expedite permits, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright has listed geothermal as one of his priorities.

Global investment in clean-energy technology and infrastructure is set to double that of fossil fuels this year despite geopolitical and market turmoil, according to a report on the sector by the International Energy Agency.

Around $3.3 trillion in investments will flow into the energy sector in 2025, up 2% from 2024. Of that, around $2.2 trillion will go to renewable and nuclear energy, energy storage, low-emission fuels, efficiency and electrification—double the amount going to oil, natural gas and coal, according to the Paris-based organization, the WSJ's Joseph Hoppe reports.

China has been the main driver of global investments in the energy sector. While the country’s spending matched the U.S. a decade ago, it now rivals the combined investments of the U.S. and the European Union.

“China is the single most important driver of global energy investments in many areas, from clean energy, such as solar, to coal,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said.

Investment in solar power is expected to reach $450 billion this year, making it the largest single item in the IEA’s report on world energy spending. Supplier competition and ultralow costs have made imported solar panels–usually paired with batteries–a key driver of investment in many emerging and developing economies.

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• Trump says he discussed trade, rare earths in call with China’s Xi (WSJ)
   
• TotalEnergies promotion of natural gas under fire in greenwashing trial (FT)
   
• There aren’t enough engineers to meet world’s growing hunger for power (Bloomberg)
   
• Now China’s ultra-cheap EVs are scaring China (Economist)
   
• Shein achieves science-based targets validation but earns an ‘F’ for fossil fuels (Trellis)

• ‘It’s goodbye to French fishermen’: Macron under pressure as crucial UN ocean summit opens (Guardian)

• It’s not just poor rains causing drought. The atmosphere is ‘thirstier.’ (NYT)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.