Climate strategy

As a multinational company with operations in more than 20 countries, we recognise the impact that climate change will have on many regions in which we work. We are fully engaged in global efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions and to mitigate their impact. Across the whole European steel sector, CO₂ emissions per tonne of output are now 50% lower than 40 years ago.¹ We continue to develop products and processes that are as efficient as possible.

We have identified three main risks relating to climate change that could affect our business: an increase in costs stemming from new environmental regulations and carbon pricing; the potential physical impact of climate change on our operations and distribution networks; and demands for higher levels of performance and disclosure from our investors and customers. We also see opportunities related to the development of products that will help society to adapt to the effects of climate change and a lower carbon environment.

We are responding to these risks and opportunities by: having a 2020 reduction target for CO₂ emissions per tonne of steel; making as much use of recycled steel as possible; developing new innovative materials and products to support our customers; and investing in long-term R&D.

Reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency

Our target is to reduce our CO₂ emissions by 170kg per tonne of steel by 2020. This is equivalent to an 8% reduction in normalised emissions from the 2007 baseline. This group target was set in 2008 based on analysis of 2007 CO₂ emissions data, identifying the potential CO₂ savings across the sites.

Reducing our energy footprint is one of our top priorities. Based on our energy policy published in 2008, we have developed internal energy management good practices, compatible with energy management standard ISO 50001, aiming to speed up the detection and implementation of all energy saving opportunities.

We will achieve these savings mainly by improving the process management, implementing energy management systems and using better technologies. We are implementing our good practices at all our major sites and several smaller ones.

Optimising recycling
We recycle more steel than anyone else. Each year we reuse close to 30 million tonnes of scrap steel at our plants, saving around 36 million tonnes of CO₂.

Long-term R&D investment 

We are committed to the development of new production technologies that are more energy efficient and emit fewer greenhouse gases. Since 2004, we have been leading the Ultra-Low CO₂ Steelmaking (ULCOS) project, which is a research and development initiative involving companies and organisations from 15 European countries working together  to develop new ways of making steel that could cut CO₂ emissions by up to 50% by 2050.

At present, due to technical challenges, it is not possible to start up the ULCOS blast furnace project to demonstrate top gas recycling blast furnace with CO₂ transport and storage on an industrial scale at Florange. ArcelorMittal remains firmly committed to working on long term research and development projects in this area and will report on progress in future reports. For more information see www.ulcos.org.

Emissions trading and CO₂ regulation

We work with a number of regulatory bodies around the world on emissions trading and CO₂ regulation. We believe that both developed and emerging countries need to form a binding agenda to achieve CO₂ reductions, using a common measurement methodology and taking into account a sectoral approach. This will give clarity and stability to the market, and ensure there is fair competition between different countries and regions and help support the sustainability of the industry.  

We also engage with international bodies, to ensure that the debate on issues such as ‘carbon cap and trade’ schemes is balanced and well informed.² There is still a widespread misunderstanding about the contribution steel can make to the sustainability agenda. The complete recyclability of steel is still not fully factored into many environmental standards or CO₂ reduction targets, which means that some environmental labelling is misleading. For example, the European legislation related to automotive vehicles has not yet considered the potential trade-off between production emissions and savings made during the use phase and from recycling at end of the car’s life.

¹ Based on World Steel Association data, 1975 - 2005
²A cap and trade system sets a maximum level of pollution, a cap, and distributes emissions permits among firms that produce emissions. Companies must have a permit to cover each unit of pollution they produce, and they can obtain these permits either through an initial allocation or auction, or through trading with other firms.

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