Climate Lobbying Overview: Holcim (previously LafargeHolcim) appears to be actively engaged with climate policy, taking positive positions on several key policy strands but retaining some more unsupportive stances, particularly in New Zealand in 2021. The company’s top-line messaging on broad climate change policy and the energy transition is predominantly positive, yet it was unsupportive of a proposed Renewable Energy Directive Delegated Act on recycled carbon fuels in 2022. Holcim retains membership of several influential associations, such as the American Petroleum Institute, which are negatively lobbying on climate policy.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Holcim is mostly supportive of climate policy in its top-line messaging on climate action. In November 2022, the company signed a joint letter supporting reducing GHG emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and it signed another in June 2022 supporting the EU Green Deal. However, in a response to a public consultation in New Zealand in March 2021, the company appeared to stress the risks from unilateral action and the technological feasibility of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Holcim stated support for enabling climate policy frameworks in its 2022 Climate Report, published in April 2022, stating they should work as market enablers and enhance competitiveness. It also supported carbon pricing, suggesting it must be “reliable” and encompass supply and demand. In May 2022, Holcim signed a joint letter supporting increasing the ambition of a wide range of climate policies in the US, and was in favor of more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions in the build up to COP27.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Holcim seems to engage predominantly positively with climate regulations. ln an industry association review in April 2021 the company broadly supported emissions trading schemes, and in a response to a public consultation in New Zealand, Holcim was supportive of international carbon markets in March 2021. The CEO Jan Jenisch advocated for a higher carbon price in the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in a February 2022 earnings call. However, in June 2022 the company signed a joint letter advocating against the EU Parliament Environment Committee’s ambitious proposals for the reform the EU ETS and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, stressing that the proposals would “further increase unilateral regulatory costs and harm the competitiveness of European industries in EU or international markets”, and advocating for strengthened carbon leakage protection measures. In a response to a public consultation in March 2021, Holcim opposed a CBAM in New Zealand.

Holcim was broadly supportive of energy efficiency standards and building codes in the construction sector in its 2022 Climate Report on the condition that building legislation is technology and material-neutral and based on lifecycle performance.

Positioning on Energy Transition: Holcim seems to support the energy transition and the decarbonization of the cement sector, with some exceptions. In its 2022 Climate Report, the company advocated for government policy to support the development of low-carbon technologies, particularly carbon capture and utilization, and to support alternative fuels, such as non-recyclable and biomass waste, to replace fossil fuels. In feedback to the EU Commission on the Draft Delegated Act for GHG savings from renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) and recycled carbon fuels in June 2022, Holcim did not support the proposed 2035 deadline for counting captured emissions from non-sustainable sources as avoided emissions. In March 2022 in a testimony to the Maryland General Assembly on the Buildings Standards and Emissions Reductions legislation, the company supported low-carbon procurement mandates for state construction projects. An opinion piece for the Economist in October 2022, written by a senior executive Magali Anderson strongly supported a range of policies to decarbonize buildings, including green public procurement and product standards. In a November 2022 joint letter signed by the CEO, Holcim supported removing fossil fuel subsidies.

Industry Association Governance: Holcim published a detailed list of industry association memberships and their positions on climate policy on its corporate website, accessed in July 2022. In April 2021, the company published a review of its alignment on climate policy with some of its industry associations. Holcim retains membership of several influential associations such as the American Petroleum Institute which is negatively lobbying on climate policy. The CEO of LafargeHolcim Spain is President of CEMBUREAU. The Australian branch of the company appears to retain memberships of associations which have been intensely oppositional to Australian climate policy, including the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Manufacturing Australia.

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 Q1 2023.