POSCO Leads Low-Carbon Society Through '2050 Carbon Neutrality' Initiative

Joining the Government's 2050 Carbon Neutrality Declaration
Creating an Eco-Friendly Ecosystem with 'Green Steel' Using Green Hydrogen and Renewable Energy

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO has declared its goal to achieve 'Carbon Neutrality' by 2050. Amid climate change emerging as humanity's greatest challenge, POSCO is the first Asian steelmaker based on a large blast furnace production system to officially announce a carbon neutrality plan.

POSCO plans to turn carbon risks into opportunities during the global transition to a low-carbon economy. By achieving carbon neutrality, POSCO aims to lead the creation of a sustainable world as a corporate citizen. The company intends to make 'low-carbon competitiveness'?capable of producing 'green steel' through innovative technologies such as Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) and hydrogen-based ironmaking?a key milestone in realizing 'POSCO, a 100-year company.' POSCO’s carbon neutrality declaration demonstrates its commitment to playing a leading role as a representative domestic manufacturing company in achieving the government’s '2050 Carbon Neutrality' and implementing the 'Green New Deal.'

Alongside this, POSCO is transparently disclosing climate-related information. Following its declaration of support for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in March?the first among domestic manufacturers?POSCO has published a Climate Action Report (POSCO’s Dialogue for Climate Action) reflecting the TCFD recommendations alongside its carbon neutrality declaration.

The report presents medium- and short-term targets of reducing emissions by 20% by 2030 and 50% by 2040 to achieve the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. It also includes climate scenario analyses emphasized in the TCFD recommendations, adding further significance. Additionally, the report introduces various low-carbon solutions under development to reduce carbon emissions and mentions low-carbon technologies to be gradually applied in the future. The plan is to first improve energy efficiency and switch to economically viable low-carbon raw materials in Phase 1; advance scrap utilization and apply CCUS in Phase 2; and in Phase 3, develop hydrogen-based ironmaking technology based on the existing FINEX process to ultimately realize a carbon-neutral steelmaking process based on hydrogen reduction and renewable energy.

Chairman Choi Jeong-woo stated in the preface of the Climate Action Report, "Addressing climate change is not a future issue but a current one that must be resolved now. It is an important agenda for POSCO as a corporate citizen wishing to contribute to building a better world. From this perspective, leading companies including POSCO must play a key role in finding ways to reach a low-carbon society."

He added, "The process of achieving carbon neutrality will face many challenges, and it cannot be done alone. It is important to make joint efforts through continuous communication and partnerships with stakeholders. We will cooperate with industry, government, and investors to promote the establishment of clean energy infrastructure," he emphasized.

POSCO is strengthening ESG management to ensure that the management philosophy of 'Corporate Citizenship Growing Together' is established across all fields. In January, POSCO became the first domestic company to establish an ESG-dedicated organization under the CEO’s direct supervision, the Corporate Citizenship Office, enhancing business competitiveness through ESG risk analysis and strategy development. As part of this strategy, POSCO is converting ongoing projects to environmentally friendly methods and has decided not to pursue new coal-related projects that do not contribute to future carbon reduction targets. Furthermore, POSCO plans to internalize climate change issues into group-wide business strategies and risk management systems while expanding low-carbon businesses such as secondary battery materials, hydrogen, and LNG.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.