Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: China Steel has not communicated a clear top-line position on climate policy. It demonstrates mixed engagement on specific policy strands and energy transition. The company appears supportive of a carbon border adjustment mechanism and electrification of vehicles in Taiwan. However, it appears to have advocated for coking coal in steelmaking and engaged with policymakers in opposition of carbon tax, requesting exemptions for coal in steelmaking. The company also has limited transparency on its policy engagement through industry associations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: China Steel appears to have limited top-line positions on climate policy. On its corporate website, assessed in April 2024, China Steel supported some of the science of climate change. However, the company has not explicitly supported the Paris Agreement nor emissions reduction pathways aligned with IPCC science aiming to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: China Steel appears to take a mixture of positive and negative positions on specific climate regulations. As reported by IEK in December 2023, China Steel supported a carbon border adjustment mechanism in Taiwan. However, in its 2023 CDP climate change response, it disclosed that it advocated for exemptions of coal used in the metallurgical process from carbon tax. Regarding renewable energy policy, in its 2023 CDP climate change response, China Steel disclosed its direct engagement with policymakers on the Renewable Energy Development Act, where it opposed the mandatory share of renewable energy consumption imposed by the policy.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Regarding low-carbon energy transition, China Steel advocated for a continued role for GHG emissions-intensive steel production. For example, the CEO of China Steel disclosed in a board meeting that the company directly promoted coking coal to the government in Taiwan, as reported by China Times in June 2023.
Industry Association Governance: As of August 2024, China Steel disclosed a list of its industry association membership and key positions of its senior staff members on its website. However, the disclosure lacks detail on the climate positions of these associations and how they align with China Steel’s own positions. The company has not published a review of its alignment on climate policy with its industry associations. China Steel’s CEO is the chairman of the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association, which has negatively engaged with a number of climate policy strands, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emissions reduction. Internationally, it is a direct member of the World Steel Association, which has become more supportive of steel sector decarbonization in 2023-2024.
Additional Note: China Steel is headquartered in Taiwan, where InfluenceMap’s LobbyMap platform can currently only make a provisional assessment of corporate climate policy engagement, due to limited capability to access publicly available data on this issue. As it is possible that InfluenceMap is not yet able to fully capture evidence of China Steel's climate policy engagement activities, these scores should be considered provisional at this time.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 2024.