Climate Lobbying Overview: POSCO Holdings and its subsidiaries appear to be actively engaging with climate regulation in South Korea, with a mixture of positive and negative positions. POSCO states top-line support for emissions reductions and global climate action, yet appears to take a more negative stance on specific policy areas including the Korean Emissions Trading System (K-ETS), the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (EU CBAM), and the role of fossil fuels in the energy mix.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: POSCO has shown top-line support for global emissions reductions, although in many cases it is unclear whether this support is in line with IPCC-recommended reduction pathways . At a World Steel Association summit in April 2023, POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo supported emissions reductions by the steel industry, but did not specify a timeline for reductions in line with IPCC guidance. In a March 2022 press release, POSCO appeared to support limiting global temperature rise to below 1.5°C, but it was unclear whether it supported drastic emissions reductions for the steel sector. POSCO has taken mixed positions on the need for climate regulation. In June 2023, Kim Hee, Managing Director of POSCO, supported government climate policy “support and countermeasures,” but the company’s position on other forms of regulation was unclear. In an April 2022 CEOScore article, Ahn Yoon-ki, Managing Director of the POSCO Research Institute (POSRI), stated that South Korea “should move away from regulation-centred carbon neutral policy” towards alternative policies such as tax credits.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: POSCO’s detailed climate policy engagement appears to be broadly negative and mostly focused on the Korea Emissions Trading Scheme (K-ETS) and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (EU CBAM). POSCO does not appear to disclose its position on, or engagement with, climate-related policy on its corporate website, last accessed in August 2023. In July 2023, POSCO submitted comments to the EU Draft Implementing Regulation for CBAM, where it did not support the provisions for steel imports to report indirect emissions, citing an unfair burden on imported goods compared to steel made in the EU. In May 2023, POSCO Vice President Kim Kyung-han met with the WTO Director-General and expressed concern that “measures for carbon neutrality could be abused as another trade barrier.” Although POSCO states top-line support for the Korea Emissions Trading Scheme (K-ETS), it has advocated for a number of reforms that would weaken the overall ambition of the policy. In its 2021 CDP disclosure, POSCO called for further free allocations for its sector, citing “the vulnerability of the trade-exposed sector to international competition.” In its 2022 CDP response, POSCO disclosed that it engaged with the K-ETS policy, but did not disclose further details on the outcomes sought. In a March 2022 report, POSRI advocated for K-ETS reforms to exclude indirect emissions from its emission reduction calculations.

Positioning on Energy Transition: POSCO takes mixed positions on the energy transition, supporting increased green hydrogen production and more ambitious renewable energy policies as part of steel sector decarbonization efforts, but also promoting the role of fossil gas in steel production as well as the energy mix. In its 2022 Corporate Citizenship Report, published June 2023, POSCO advocated for government support to “sufficiently establish green hydrogen and renewable energy supply infrastructure.” In a November 2022 official comment submission on the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) hydrogen provisions, POSCO advocated for extended duration of tax credits for clean hydrogen production. In an interview with the Korea Economic Daily in June 2022, POSCO advocated for hydrogen-reduced steel technology to be selected as an official National Project by the South Korean government. A March 2022 report by POSRI supported “deregulation and support measures” for the LNG value chain in Korea in order to “revitalize the domestic LNG market.” In January 2022, the POSCO Chairman supported a long-term transition to renewable energy, but also appeared to support new LNG exploration and infrastructure without specifying conditions around CCS or methane abatement. In terms of the low-carbon transition of the steel industry, in May 2023 POSCO Research Institute (POSRI) published a report calling for policy support to develop and commercialize CCUS technology for use in blast furnaces, but did not clarify its position on the need to transition to a fully net-zero industrial system by 2050. In the POSCO Holdings 2022 Corporate Citizenship Report published in July 2023, the company appeared to support the use of gas in steel blast furnaces to replace coking coal, without mentioning the need for CCS or methane mitigation measures. The Financial Times reported in June 2022 that POSCO had expressed concern that regulations for green steelmaking in Europe, Japan and South Korea could put companies in these countries at a “disadvantage” compared to competitors in countries with “looser domestic regulations.”

Industry Association Governance: POSCO disclosed a list of its industry association memberships in its 2022 Corporate Citizenship Report. However, this membership disclosure excluded three industry associations that are actively engaged with climate policy, including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea International Trade Association, and H2KOREA. POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo holds several leadership positions in industry associations engaging negatively on climate policy, including as Chairman of the Korea Iron and Steel Association and member of the ‘Net Zero Research Association’ committee of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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 2023.