Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Linde actively engages with EU and US climate policy, taking a mix of positive and negative positions. . The company is supportive of climate policy in its top-line messaging,but appears to consistently advocate for weaker regulations on hydrogen production.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Linde’s top-line messaging on climate policy is broadly positive, although with limited evidence of engagement in 2023-25. Linde appeared to support the goals of the UN Paris Agreement to limit global warming below 2°C, for example on its corporate website, accessed in July 2025. Additionally, Linde recognized the necessity of responding to climate change in its 2024 Sustainability Report, published in June 2025. InfluenceMap did not detect a public position from the company on the need for government regulation to respond to climate change in 2023-25.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policies: Linde’s engagement with specific climate-related policies in the EU and US appears to be limited and predominantly negative. Linde appeared to not support strict requirements for renewable hydrogen production in the Delegated Act on Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBOs) in the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) in their 2023 CDP Response, published in July 2023. Moreover, Linde appeared to not support the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) in an October 2023 position paper shared with the EU Commission, sourced from a Freedom of Information Request, highlighting that REDIII and similar EU hydrogen policies “are likely to have the non-intended consequence of limiting low-carbon hydrogen volumes available in Europe during the critical next decade.”
Positioning on Energy Transition: Linde supports the energy transition with some major exceptions, advocating for weaker regulations related to hydrogen production in the EU and US. Linde stated broad support for hydrogen produced from renewable energy or from fossil fuels with clear conditions around the use of CCS for use in heavy industry or hard-to-abate sectors in a white paper accessed in November 2024. Additionally, in Linde’s Q1 2025 earnings call in May 2025, Linde CEO Sanjiv Lamba gave general support for the hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with some mention of the need for CCS, but was unclear on the need to reduce fossil fuel usage on end-use for hydrogen. The company consistently advocated for less stringent regulation related to the decarbonization of hydrogen production. The company opposed stringent criteria to ensure authentic production of renewable hydrogen under the California Assembly Bill 1550 in January 2024 comments. In the EU, Linde advocated for a significantly weaker EU Hydrogen and Gas Decarbonization Package Delegated Act on the definition of low-carbon hydrogen in October 2024 comments to policymakers. Linde CEO Sanjiv Lamba advocated for the use of hydrogen for light duty vehicles and stressed the need to avoid overregulation of hydrogen-related decarbonization efforts for the transport, industry, and energy sectors in a July 2025 CEO Letter to EU Commission President von der Leyen from the Global Hydrogen Mobility Alliance.
Industry Association Governance: Linde’s 2024 Sustainability Report lists its membership to some industry associations actively engaged on climate policy, but without details on the groups’ climate policy positions. The company is a member of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers association and the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), which are actively and negatively engaged on climate policy in the US and EU. Additionally, Linde excluded 6 industry associations from its disclosure, including Energy Users Association of Australia, which is negatively engaged on energy transition legislation in Australia. The company has not published a review of its industry association memberships and climate policy engagement.
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.