Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: H&M is strategically and positively engaged with climate policy. It has actively supported various strands of climate-related regulation in the EU, including energy efficiency, renewable energy legislation, and GHG emissions targets. H&M also supports the energy transition, including the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: H&M’s top-line messaging is supportive of ambitious action on climate change. The company supported limiting warming to 1.5°C in an October 2024 joint letter. In the same joint letter H&M strongly supported more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions in the build up to COP29. On its corporate website, accessed in September 2024, the company supported climate policy in line with limiting temperatures to 1.5ºC.
Engagement with Climate-related Policy: H&M supports multiple strands of climate change legislation and regulation. H&M supported an EU 2040 GHG emissions reductions target of 80 to 90% compared 1990 levels, higher than the average trajectory of emission reductions but misaligned with scientific recommendations, in June 2023 comments to policymakers. However, in a joint industry letter from March 2024, the company supported a target of 90 to 95% compared to 1990 levels, in line with scientific recommendations. H&M supported an ambitious EU Renewable Energy Directive and EU Energy Efficiency Directive on its corporate website, accessed in September 2024. The company also appeared supportive of renewable energy related legislation in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Türkiye, and China in its 2023 CDP Disclosure. H&M broadly supported the need for government intervention to preserve and enhance carbon sinks and pools which respects the rights of indigenous communities by supporting a public-private partnership to reduce tropical deforestation, the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, in a press release in September 2024.
H&M appeared to support government regulation on circular economy, in particular to improve circular product design, reuse, repair and recycling, in a joint industry letter in March 2024. The company was supportive of the EU's Waste Framework Directive’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements for textiles and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products in its 2023 Sustainability Disclosure published in March 2024. However, in its 2023 CDP Disclosure, the company supported the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation with some minor exceptions regarding substances of concern and . In an October 2024 joint letter H&M advocated for policymakers to increase the ambition of the UN Global Treaty on Plastics by including legally binding instruments covering the entire life-cycle of plastics.
Positioning on Energy Transition: H&M takes supportive positions on the energy transition. The company has consistently supported the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies, such as in an October 2024 joint letter. In the same joint letter, H&M supported transitioning to a renewables based energy system alongside the electrification of transportation, heat and industry, and policy instruments to decarbonize industry. In a December 2023 joint letter, H&M supported a phase out of all fossil fuels in the EU, with a coal phase out by 2030, fossil gas by mid-2030s and oil by 2040.
Industry Association Governance: H&M disclosed a list of its industry associations in its 2023 Sustainability Disclosure, published in March 2024, but appeared to exclude its membership to Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), associations that appear to be engaging with broadly positive positions on climate related policy. The company has not published a formal review of its industry association memberships, nor an account of its associations positions and engagement activities.
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 Q1 2025.