Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: SSAB is strategically engaged with climate policy. The company demonstrates policy engagement that is partially aligned with policy pathways aiming to deliver the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement, taking supportive positions on key climate regulations, however, with exceptions in regard to EU carbon pricing policies. SSAB retains memberships of several industry associations that are negatively engaged on climate change policy in the EU and the US.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: SSAB supports climate policy in its top-line messaging, although with some exceptions. In its 2024 Annual Report, published in March 2025, the company supported the EU’s Green Deal and 2050 climate neutrality target. SSAB supported a range of policies to respond to climate change while referencing the need for increased ambition, and expressed strong support for the implementation of the EU Fit for 55 Package in a joint letter signed in May 2025. However, the CEO signed the Antwerp Declaration in February 2024, which advocated against prescriptive regulations following the EU Green Deal targets and emphasized the impacts of climate policy on international competitiveness. SSAB supported the goals of the UN Paris Agreement in its 2023 Annual Report, published in March 2024, and supported more ambitious NDCs in the build-up to COP29 in an October 2024 joint letter.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: SSAB engages positively on specific climate regulations in the EU, however with several exceptions. In a joint letter to Swedish policymakers in December 2023, SSAB supported more ambitious GHG emission targets, including a climate neutrality target in the EU by 2040 and the need to reduce emissions sooner than the current 2030 target. In addition, the company signed a joint letter in May 2025, promoting an EU 2040 GHG emissions reductions target of 90 to 95% compared to 1990 levels, in line with recommendations by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. In a meeting with the EU Commission in March 2024, SSAB supported GHG emissions standards by calling for green steel standardization at national, EU and global level. It also promoted a stringent, official definition of green steel which is fossil free on its corporate website, accessed in November 2024. In its 2024 Annual Report, published in March 2025, SSAB broadly supported the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and EU Emissions Trading System. However, the company supported the EU ETS Reform of free allocation rules with exceptions in a December 2023 comment on an EU public consultation, advocating to take the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crisis into account in the calculation of free allowances. SSAB also appeared to support export rebates in the EU CBAM in a meeting with the EU Commission in March 2024, a position which is misaligned with the EU Commission’s original policy ambition. SSAB signed a March 2024 joint industry letter which broadly supported EU energy efficiency legislation.
Positioning on Energy Transition: SSAB appears to engage with predominantly positive positions on the energy transition and steel decarbonization. The company signed a joint letter in May 2025 which strongly supported the urgent decarbonization of the power sector, advocating for measures such as the removal of fossil fuel subsidies. Similarly, in a joint letter to Swedish policymakers in December 2023, SSAB supported a phaseout of all fossil fuels in the EU by 2040 and a rapid phaseout of all fossil fuel subsidies. In a November 2023 press release the company supported policy to facilitate the decarbonization of the steel industry with fossil-free electricity and subsidies for fossil-free technologies.
However, SSAB signed the Antwerp Declaration in February 2024, which takes unclear positions on industrial decarbonization. For example, it advocated for more funding for ‘clean’ technology without clarifying what this includes, and stated support for Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) without providing details on the long-term role of fossil fuels and conditions under which CCU would apply.
Industry Association Governance: SSAB disclosed a list of its industry association memberships but without further details on the organizations’ climate policy positions, nor on SSAB’s roles within the organizations. The company has not publicly disclosed a review of its climate policy alignment with its industry associations. SSAB retains influential positions in several industry associations which are negatively engaged on climate change policy, such as Eurofer in Europe and the National Association of Manufacturers in the US.
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 Q2 2025.