Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: ArcelorMittal is strategically engaged with climate policy. The company exhibits both positive and negative engagement with science-aligned climate policies in the EU and on industry decarbonization. ArcelorMittal retains leadership positions in multiple industry associations that engage negatively on climate policy in different regions.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: ArcelorMittal appears to support climate policy in its top-line messaging, however with significant exceptions. The company supported the Paris Agreement objectives in its 2024 Sustainability Report, published in April 2025, and supported net-zero by 2050 in the June 2024 Oslo Declaration. However, the company repeatedly emphasized the risks of carbon leakage and impacts on international competitiveness from climate policy, for example in the February 2024 Antwerp Declaration and in a December 2024 Financial Times op-ed written by Executive Chairman Lakshmi N Mittal.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policies: ArcelorMittal engages with key EU climate policies with predominantly negative or ambiguous positions.
The company did not support the phase-out of free allocation of emissions allowances in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), as reported by Hydrogen Insight in February 2024. It also seemed to emphasize negative economic impacts of carbon pricing on the steel industry in a July 2024 meeting with the EU Commission. During its 2025 Annual General Meeting, held on 6 May 2025, ArcelorMittal advocated for including export rebates in the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a position which is misaligned with the EU Commission’s original policy ambition.
In a September 2024 open letter to EU policymakers, the company supported RED targets for industry and the Delegated Act on RFNBOs.
The company signed Steel Standards Principles in December 2023 which took a mixed position on government-regulated emissions standards, supporting a definition of near-zero steel without stating a position on the level of ambition, and advocating for ‘technology agnostic’ performance based standards.
Positioning on Energy Transition: ArcelorMittal’s positions on industry decarbonization appear to be predominantly negative. CEO Aditya Mittal broadly supported an increase in renewable energy to decarbonize the steel sector in a report published by the European Round Table for Industry in April 2024. However, the company stressed concerns around economic and technological feasibility of steel decarbonization in a press release published in November 2024, and emphasized risks of deindustrialization due to an ‘unfavorable’ policy environment. ArcelorMittal reiterated these feasibility concerns in a June 2025 press release, while also advocating for increased measures in the EU Steel and Metals Action Plan to accelerate steel decarbonization. Although ArcelorMittal supported government funding to scale up green hydrogen for the steel sector in its 2023 Annual Report, published in February 2024, the company promoted a general technology-neutral approach to granting state in the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF) and advocated for less stringent eligibility criteria in its EU public consultation response submitted in April 2025. In an October 2024 EU feedback comment ArcelorMittal advocated for a weakened definition of low-carbon hydrogen in the EU Hydrogen and Gas Decarbonisation Package Delegated Act on the definition of low-carbon hydrogen.
Industry Association Governance: ArcelorMittal retains leadership positions in multiple industry associations negatively engaging on climate policy in different regions, including the Federation of German Industries and the Mining Association of Canada. In March 2025, the company disclosed a partial list of its industry association memberships, however excluding 16 groups which are actively engaged on climate policy, and not providing an account of the associations’ positions and engagement activities.
A detailed assessment of the company's industry association review can be found on our CA100+ webpage here.
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 2025.