ArcelorMittal’s investors can no longer afford to wait: time for climate leadership

Reclaim Finance criticizes ArcelorMittal for contradictions between its public decarbonization claims and its actual financial and operational actions. The organization highlights delayed hydrogen-based steel projects in Europe, insufficient capital expenditure for decarbonization, and misleading emissions reporting. It calls on investors to pressure the company to publish an updated Climate Action Report (CAR3) with a clear timeline to phase out coal globally.

• ArcelorMittal has delayed investment decisions for European Hydrogen based Direct Reduced Iron (HDRI) projects intended to replace coal-based blast furnaces, citing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) review, despite receiving at least €3 billion in EU public subsidies and €3.8 billion in free allowances.
• The company's financial allocations for 2025 show a low priority for decarbonization, with only US$0.3-0.4 billion earmarked for such projects out of a total planned capital expenditure of US$4.5-5 billion.
• ArcelorMittal's reporting of a 50% reduction in absolute emissions is described as misleading because the group's emissions intensity remains at 1.96tCO2/t of steel, which is above the industry average, and the absolute reduction is largely due to asset divestments in countries such as Kazakhstan and Italy.
• The company's lobbying and strategic positions in 2024 were found to be misaligned with IPCC science, specifically by strongly favoring carbon capture, use and sequestration, which the document claims sustains metallurgical coal use and is ineffective for steel decarbonization.
• ArcelorMittal has failed to provide a clear commitment to phase out coal in its operations and has not updated its climate action report since 2021.

APA

Martin, L. (2025). ArcelorMittal’s investors can no longer afford to wait: time for climate leadership. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2025/03/05/arcelormittals-investors-can-no-longer-afford-to-wait-time-for-climate-leadership/

Chicago

Martin, Léo. ArcelorMittal’s investors can no longer afford to wait: time for climate leadership. Reclaim Finance, 2025. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2025/03/05/arcelormittals-investors-can-no-longer-afford-to-wait-time-for-climate-leadership/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Martin |first1=Léo |title=ArcelorMittal’s investors can no longer afford to wait: time for climate leadership |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=5 March 2025 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2025/03/05/arcelormittals-investors-can-no-longer-afford-to-wait-time-for-climate-leadership/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{martin2025arcelormittals, author = {Martin, Léo}, title = {{ArcelorMittal’s investors can no longer afford to wait: time for climate leadership}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2025}, month = mar, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2025/03/05/arcelormittals-investors-can-no-longer-afford-to-wait-time-for-climate-leadership/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }