The Engage series is a suite of resources developed by IIGCC in collaboration with members and stakeholders to support effective investor stewardship and meaningful engagement across key themes and sectors. This page focuses on steel, highlighting the specific challenges, opportunities and policy context for the transition.
Steel is ubiquitous in the global economy, with its use seen as both a key enabler and a marker of levels of economic development. Nearly 1.9 billion tonnes of steel are produced each year, approximately 95% of all metals by volume. However, its manufacture is highly emissions-intensive, predominantly due to reliance on metallurgical coal.
Investors seeking to address the climate risks posed by steel emissions can help in several ways. Capital will be needed to fund the transition and scale up cleaner solutions. They can engage not only with steelmakers, but across the value chain and with policymakers to encourage a supportive economic environment.
This Tool for Engagement supports investor dialogue with steel companies. It summarises the key transition issues, the questions investors can ask to assess their risk and what they might expect to see in a comprehensive response.
The content reflects dialogue between the industry and investors, incorporating feedback from IIGCC’s Steel Working Group as well as resources developed by AIGCC, Ceres, IGCC and IIGCC (see appendix) plus external stakeholders.
This Tool is provided solely to support investors in considering their assessments of material financial risk. It is provided only for consideration and should be adapted where it is relevant to an individual investor’s circumstances. Not all questions will be applicable to all companies, but it seeks to reflect multiple perspectives and cover a broad range of topics for wide applicability.
This publication is part of The Engage Series, which provides practical resources to help investors as they consider how best to engage – in their individual contexts – with key stakeholders on themes and sectors vital to net zero transition. You can explore the full collection of publications in the series here.