7 May 2025 – One of the largest EU steel manufacturers is not meeting its self-imposed climate targets by 2030 and no longer seems to have any intention of meeting them. While the multinational has only invested USD 800 million in decarbonisation since 2021, shareholders have enjoyed USD 12 billion in dividend payments – an EU steel crisis looks different.
Is EU steel maker failing to meet its climate targets?
According to a recent publication by steelwatch.org, one of Europe’s largest steel makers, ArcelorMittal, is failing to meet its self-imposed emissions targets by 2030 and is postponing key decarbonisation measures until after 2030.
The multinational steel maker, which had an operating cash flow of almost USD 33 billion between 2021 and 2024, invested just USD 800 million (less than 2.5%) in its decarbonisation measures over the same period.
On the other hand, ArcelorMittal’s shareholders enjoyed USD 12bn in dividends during this period.
In addition, according to steelwatch.org, the company has still not made any final investment decisions for its five (5) decarbonisation projects in Europe and Canada, but has already collected more than USD 3.5 billion in subsidies for them.
Continued investment in CO2-intensive blast furnaces
According to the report, the Group continues to rely on CO2-intensive blast furnaces, has barely reduced its CO2 emissions in recent years and consistently excludes its joint ventures from climate reporting, even though they are said to emit 25 million tonnes of CO₂ annually.
EU Green Deal = Bad Deal?
Overall, the report by steelwatch.org shows what is going wrong in the implementation of ambitious EU climate targets: While EU steel producers are getting one Trade Defence measure after another, demanding CBAM and the associated bureaucratic hurdles and ever new subsidies, they are only reluctantly meeting their decarbonisation targets – because a tonne of European crude steel already had almost the same CO2 emissions in 2014 as it does today. A voluntary willingness to reduce CO2 looks different.
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