The analysis overviews steel sector policy advocacy trends:
- The European steel sector appears to support increasing green hydrogen supply, but has advocated to weaken the criteria for renewable hydrogen production in the Renewable Energy Directive. This is coupled with a lack of clearly supportive engagement across the sector on specific renewable energy regulations in 2022-23.
- The steel sector supports circular economy policy to scale up the use of scrap to decarbonize steel production through the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The majority of the sector also supports setting standards for green steel, however companies appear to disagree on the definition.
- No entities assessed in this briefing supported the inclusion of GHG emissions in the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), the main EU instrument regulating pollutant emissions at installation level. Advocacy from heavy industry appears to have led to the omission of specific measures on GHG emissions covering EU ETS sectors in the EU Commission, Parliament and Council proposals, in contrast with the Commission’s original ambition to address industry decarbonization efforts through the IED.
- Despite strong top-line support for carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies, the steel sector appeared to attempt to weaken key EU policies such as the Renewable Energy Delegated Act on Recycled Carbon Fuels and the Carbon Removals Certification Framework.
InfluenceMap's briefing identifies the leaders and laggards of the sector in 2023, finding that SSAB took the most supportive positions in its advocacy. ArcelorMittal engaged most negatively with key EU climate policies.
