Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Glencore is strategically engaged on climate related issues, exhibiting positive top-line positions, but negative real-world policy engagement. The company has opposed climate-related policy and continues to support a sustained role for coal in the energy mix and steelmaking. Glencore also retains membership to a network of industry associations which engage negatively on various strands of climate change policy.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Glencore appears broadly supportive of climate action in its top-line communications. In its 2024 Sustainability Report, published April 2025, Glencore expressed support for limiting temperature to well-below 2°C. The company also supported the Paris Agreement in its 2024 ‘Review of our Direct and Indirect Advocacy’ report, published April 2025, and appeared to support government regulation to respond to climate change and price carbon into the economy in the same report.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Glencore has opposed ambitious climate policy on emissions reduction targets. In Australia, Glencore provided comments on the Climate Change Authority's (CCA) 2024 Issues paper: Targets, Pathways and Progress in May 2024. In its comments, the company appeared to suggest that an updated emission reduction target of between 65–75% by 2035 is overly ambitious, emphasizing concerns around technological readiness and economic capability to deliver the emission reductions required, while stating that targets must consider "realistic timeframes for delivery." It also reported in its April 2025 Advocacy Review that, in 2024, it had advocated directly to Australian policymakers for a staggered approach to emissions reductions without providing further details.
Glencore has also engaged on carbon tax and trading policies in 2024, however its positions are unclear. For example, in its April 2025 Advocacy Review, the company stated that it had advocated to policymakers in 2024 on the 2nd phase of South Africa’s Carbon Tax Act, and on the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
Positioning on Energy Transition: Glencore continues to promote a sustained role for both thermal and metallurgical coal in the energy mix and steel production, respectively. In a February 2025 earnings call. Glencore CEO Gary Nagle supported the continued role for coal in the energy mix without reference to carbon capture and storage (CCS), stating that “energy coal is needed today as the world transitions” and emphasizing the energy transition cannot “happen overnight.” Furthermore, in a February 2024 earnings call, Nagle also emphasized the technical and economic difficulties in electrifying steel production, stating that metallurgical coal is “not really substitutable”, and that due to issues with scale, economics, production, and transportation of green hydrogen, “steelmaking coal is here to stay.”
Glencore has also promoted the role of fossil fuels to policymakers. Most recently, in its May 2024 comments on the Climate Change Authority's (CCA) 2024 Issues paper: Targets, Pathways and Progress, the company advocated for the continued role of oil, coal, and fossil gas in the energy mix without conditions around methane abatement or CCS.
Industry Association Governance: Glencore disclosed its industry association memberships in its April 2025 ‘Review of our Direct and Indirect Advocacy’. Glencore opted to terminate its membership with the World Coal Association in 2022 on climate grounds. However, the company retains strong links to several industry associations actively opposed to meaningful climate change policy, including board-membership to the Queensland Resources Council, Minerals Council of Australia and the Mining Association of Canada.
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.
A detailed assessment of the company's corporate review on climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap's CA100+ Investor Hub here.