With an operating steel capacity of 99.21 million tons per year, ArcelorMittal is the world’s biggest steel company, holding 4.49% of the world’s operating steel capacity. ArcelorMittal was the world’s second biggest steel producer in 2021, with 79.26 million tons of steel produced this year.
The steel sector accounts for around 7% of global GHG emissions and 11% of global CO2 emissions. Decarbonizing the steel sector is key to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. As one of the biggest stakeholders in the steel industry, ArcelorMittal has a key role to play in pushing for the right solutions to decarbonize the industry. However, the company’s climate strategy contains significant gaps, as assessed by CA100+, with medium term targets that are not aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, no short-term targets, and no commitments to decarbonize its capital expenditures.
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In addition, the company seems to have adopted a two-speed decarbonization strategy, by developing green hydrogen projects in Europe and Canada, but continuing to build and expand new coal-based facilities in other parts of the world. In India for instance, the company has started building two new coal-consuming blast furnaces. Relying on yet unproven carbon capture utilization and storage technologies while continuing to develop coal-based facilities in the Global South is a risky bet, since there is no major breakthrough in sight for these technologies. This challenges the alignment of the company’s technology choices with the company’s climate commitments.
For financial institutions engaging with the steel sector, this webinar is an opportunity to discuss ArcelorMittal’s climate strategy, analyze its flaws, and propose possible ways forward. We will focus on its two-speed decarbonization plans and how its recent technology choices in the Global South, especially in India, are misaligned with the company’s decarbonization strategy. We will also hear from environmental groups in South Africa, where ArcelorMittal is the country’s third biggest polluter, about their mobilization to push the company to raise its ambitions to adopt an ambitious climate strategy worldwide.
