Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Lobbying Overview: OMV exhibits strategic levels of both supportive and oppositional engagement with science-aligned climate policy. The company also engages on the energy mix, supporting energy sources such as hydrogen, biofuels and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) to transition the energy mix, whilst advocating to prolong the role of fossil gas in the energy mix.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: OMV’s top-line messaging on climate policy is broadly positive, however, the company appears unsupportive of the need for government regulation. In its 2025 Industry Association Update, published May 2025, OMV states support for the goals of the Paris Agreement and EU climate targets. In an August 2024 blog post, the company appeared to support a net-zero economy by 2050. However, in its 2023 Sustainability Report published in March 2024, OMV appeared to advocate for EU-wide carbon pricing as a way to oppose the national carbon pricing system.
The company signed the Antwerp Declaration in February 2024, which advocated against EU Green Deal policies, calling for an EU Industrial Deal to revise existing climate policy and emphasizing competitiveness. In a February 2025 article, OMV CEO Alfred Stern also appeared not to fully support the EU Green deal, emphasizing negative impacts on investments in the energy sector and EU competitiveness.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: OMV engages with a mixture of positive and negative positions on climate regulations from 2023-2025. In April 2025 comments on oil and gas producers’ contributions to the EU’s 2030 storage objective, OMV and subsidiary OMV Petrom both opposed the carbon storage mandate. Through its subsidiary Borealis, OMV demonstrates positive engagement with circular economy policy, including the UN Global Plastics Treaty. Borealis consistently joins business coalition open letters advocating for a legally binding and ambitious Plastics Treaty, for example in June 2025 and October 2024.
Positioning on Energy Transition: OMV communicates top-line support for the energy transition and supports multiple energy sources such as hydrogen, biofuels, and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) as well as CCS. However, the company appears to provide limited details on whether its support is aligned with the IPCC’s recommendations for the energy transition, and the company also appears to advocate for the continued production and use of fossil fuels.
OMV supported more ambitious policy measures to transition to a low-carbon economy in a January 2025 blog post. However, the company continues to advocate for the continued role of unabated fossil gas, including in a CEO interview in April 2025. Similarly, the company CEO appeared to advocate for the expansion of fossil gas exploration and production in a May 2025 interview.
OMV supported the use of renewable hydrogen in hard-to-abate sectors in a corporate webpage, accessed August 2025. In a consultation response in June 2023, OMV supported 'hydrogen ready' infrastructure, without stating the need to fully decarbonize hydrogen and without stating an intended use.
In a blog post in July 2024, OMV also supported the use of CCU to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, but it is unclear from the evidence whether the uses for captured carbon are aligned with IPCC recommendations. Similarly, the company supported the use of biofuels to compliment electrification in transport but did not specify the type of transport or any timeline for a further transition in a press release in July 2024.
The company broadly supports the use of SAFs to decarbonize aviation, including in a company webpage accessed August 2025, but it is unclear if this was aligned with IPCC guidelines. The company provided a more detailed position on the use of SAFs in a podcast in September 2023, where it supported the increased use of bio-based SAF in aviation in the short-term with clear support for a switch to synthetic and/or zero-emissions technologies in the medium to long-term.
Industry Association Governance: OMV has disclosed a partial list of its industry association memberships in its Industry Association Memberships Update, published in May 2025. However, the disclosure does not provide a complete and accurate account of indirect climate policy engagement for all of the associations it does disclose, and OMV excludes its membership via subsidiaries to three actively engaged industry groups: the Australian Energy Producers (AEP), Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), and International Air Transport Association. OMV is a member of FuelsEurope, BusinessEurope and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), which are actively and negatively engaging with climate legislation.
A detailed assessment of the company's review of its climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap's CA100+ Investor Hub 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.