July 23, 2024 - With the Olympic opening ceremony just days away, and official sponsor ArcelorMittal showing off its “low-carbon emissions” torch and steel rings, the company is facing an unprecedented challenge to go beyond publicity stunts and be a true champion on decarbonisation and human rights.

Across five countries in two continents, environmental defenders, advocacy groups, and communities are challenging ArcelorMittal to clean up its dirty business in a series of actions outside of its facilities in Spain, France and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while directly addressing its leadership in Luxembourg and the UK (1).

The coalition of protestors is calling on the company to be a “true champion that protects people and planet” by taking a series of immediate actions: investments in modern pollution control technology at all its plants; compensation payments to all those who have suffered from operations and pollution; and final decisions on decarbonising steel production with green hydrogen to decisively shift to near-zero-emissions steel.

In Luxembourg, activists projected “true champions quit coal” on the site of ArcelorMittal’s upcoming global corporate headquarters, calling attention to its doubling down of coal-based production outside of Europe. In London, home of the billionaire company leaders Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal, 30 members of the London Climate Choir sang climate songs to the Mittals in front of the company’s “ArcelorOrbit” steel structure from the 2012 Olympics, calling on them to show true leadership by driving deeper action on climate and human rights.

The Mittal family owns over 42 percent of the publicly-listed company, which has generously handed USD 11 billion to shareholders over the last three years in the form of stock buybacks and dividends, while the company barely spent one-third of the USD 1.5 billion it announced for its decarbonisation plans in the same period. Of this USD 11 billion to shareholders, the Mittals themselves pocketed close to USD 2.3 billion (2).

“The climate choir is singing a message to the Mittals, in their home city of London, because they exert huge control in this global business. Whether ArcelorMittal truly cleans up is not just a question of technology, but of money and leadership. It is their values and their money, so we call on the Mittals to step up and deliver,” said Caroline Ashley, Steelwatch Executive Director.

“This is the first time groups from multiple countries have come together to collectively challenge a steel maker to lift its game on climate change and human rights. National groups are no longer isolated in their struggles, and while ArcelorMittal is now listening to us, we are still waiting for it to act,” said Pascal Husting, Shiny Claims, Dirty Flames spokesperson.

“A litany of exposés during the torch tour, covering air pollution in Bosnia, Russian coal use in India, and alleged fraud in the EU emissions trading scheme, continue to shine a light on the profit-maximising drivers at the heart of the company. So, if steel production were an Olympic discipline, we wouldn’t award ArcelorMittal a medal.”

Photos and videos of the activities are available here: https://tinyurl.com/yjyttusw

ENDS

Contacts:

Pascal Husting (EN/FR)

Shiny Claims, Dirty Flames campaign spokesperson

+352 621 887 730

Caroline Ashley

Steelwatch Executive Director (EN)

+44 7947 691911

Media Liaison

Xavier De Wannemaeker (EN/FR)

Media Liaison (France)

+31 6 2635 9683

Greg McNevin (EN)

Communications, SteelWatch (Australia)

greg@steelwatch.org, +61 475 247 044

Notes:

1. The Fair Steel Coalition behind the Shiny Claims, Dirty Flames campaign is challenging ArcelorMittal to take immediate action to show it’s serious about protecting people and the planet :
   1. In London where the Mittals live in their billionaires’ mansions, we call on them as leaders and owners to live up to their shiny claims and actually prioritise people and the planet over profits.
   2. In Luxembourg: in front of ArcelorMittal’s upcoming global headquarters, we demand an end to coal-based steelmaking, with transition plans for every site in its upcoming Climate Action Report 3.
   3. In Bosnia and Herzegovina: protestors joined Eko Forum Zenica in calling on the company to stop the double standards within Europe, make remedies to the pollution control promised in the Zenica plant, including industrial waste to be revitalised, installation of filters and wastewater treatment.
   4. In Spain: protestors joined Ecologistas en Accion in calling on the company to announce a final investment decision for green-hydrogen DRI plant at Gijón and don’t backtrack on commitments made on the use of subsidies to decarbonise in Europe.
   5. In France: protestors joined FNE PACA in calling on the company to comply with environmental regulations regarding pollution emitted by the Fos-sur-Mer plant
2. Between 2021 and 2023, ArcelorMittal paid out USD 11 billion to shareholders, through stock buybacks and dividends. That’s 22 times what it spent on decarbonisation, which was just USD 500 million. Of the USD 11 billion, the Mittal family members took close to USD 2.3 billion (based on 62,106,162 shares sold for USD 1.9 billion plus USD 374 million in dividends, assuming EUR:USD at 0.84). https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/investors/corporate-governance/share-transactions-by-management and https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/investors/equity-investors/share-buyback-program/share-buyback-program-2021.
3. New briefing on recent ArcelorMittal scandals and backtracking: No Medal for ArcelorMittal: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uEeu0Bqe4ychj2mEshi1FmlEWnHqTDTq/view
4. The Fair Steel Coalition has documented instances of land grabs, ecosystem destruction, loss of livelihoods, and serious health problems, as well as ArcelorMittal’s silence on enforced disappearances around its mines and steel plants in Mexico, Liberia, and South Africa, in the new report: The Real Cost of Steel https://edlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Real-Cost-of-Steel.pdf
5. SteelWatch Arcelormittal Corporate Climate Assessment 2024: https://steelwatch.org/reports/arcelormittal-corporate-climate-assessment-2024/ArcelorMittal is responsible for the same amount of emissions as Belgium. The company’s latest Integrated Annual Review, published in April 2024, stated: “We appreciate the work that SBTi has done to model a 1.5C trajectory for steel. After much discussion and consideration, we have concluded that in the absence of an appropriate global policy, we are not in a position to credibly set a science-based aligned group target at this point in time.” (emphasis added). https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/media/press-releases/arcelormittal-publishes-its-2023-integrated-annual-review
6. Shiny Claims, Dirty Flames (http://shiny.claims) is a campaign organised by an alliance of different organisations, facilitated by the Fair Steel Coalition, and hosted by SteelWatch, calling on ArcelorMittal to:
   1. Respect human rights, in actions not just words;
   2. Stop making empty promises and be a real climate champion;
   3. Invest in future proofing your company, not enriching shareholders;
   4. Put workers, communities, and our environment first;
   5. Stop its dirty tricks: be accountable and transparent.
7. Partners involved in the international day of action are:
   1. Members of the London Climate Choir https://climatechoirmovement.org/;
   2. Ecologistas en Accion in Spain, https://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/;
   3. Eko Forum Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, https://www.ekoforumzenica.ba/;
   4. France Nature Environnement Provence-Alpes-Côté d’Azur, https://fnepaca.fr/

The international day of action organisers pay homage to the late Samson Mokoena, who spoke movingly of the ArcelorMittal South Africa impacts of pollution in South Africa at the kick-off of Shiny Claims campaign. Samson and the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance in South Africa, which he coordinated, were keen to participate in this action day. Samson tragically died on June 28th.