Target 9.4: Retrofit industry for resource efficiency and clean technology
By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
Heavy industry retrofits are capital decisions made by listed steel, cement, chemicals and utility companies, and steel alone is about 9 percent of global emissions. As You Sow's Road to Zero Emissions scorecard graded 55 of the largest U.S. companies on climate disclosures, targets and actual emission cuts, and found about 84 percent earned a D or F. In 2021, Climate Action 100+ investors representing over USD 55 trillion set expectations that steelmakers adopt IEA net zero targets, align capex with low-carbon routes and disclose policy positions. Corporate lobbying is the blocking obstacle. InfluenceMap's June 2026 review of 22 steelmakers and 8 associations finds sustained advocacy has contributed to weaker policy design, including extensive free allocation and slower implementation timelines. The IEA adds that efficiency investment in industry, buildings and transport must triple to about USD 1.9 trillion a year by 2030. That spending sits largely with these same companies. Corporate capital decisions are decisive and corporate lobbying is the obstacle, so owner voting on transition plans and lobbying alignment can deliver most of this outcome.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Initiative supported by investors representing USD $55 trillion sets decarbonisation expectations for steel industry in line with IEA 2050 scenario, Climate Action 100+, 2021-08-04
- How the Steel Sector Is Shaping Climate and Energy Policy, InfluenceMap, 2026-06
- Energy Efficiency 2024, Executive summary, International Energy Agency, 2024
- 55 Companies Ranked on Net Zero Emissions Reductions, As You Sow, 2022-03-03
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Published a 2021 steel sector strategy on behalf of signatories with over 55 trillion dollars in assets setting expectations that steelmakers adopt IEA net zero aligned targets, align capital expenditure with net zero, avoid unabated new capacity and specify their policy positions.
Co-filed three 2024 climate proposals at Nippon Steel on Paris-aligned targets and decarbonisation capex, pay linked to emissions targets, and climate lobbying disclosure.
Nippon Steel Corporation, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, 2024
2 campaigns on record
Disclose short and medium-term Paris-aligned greenhouse gas targets with planned decarbonisation capital expenditure, link executive pay to emissions targets, and improve disclosure of climate-related lobbying.
With Amundi, Nordea Asset Management, Storebrand Asset Management (co-engaged; group represents 4.988 trillion dollars in assets)
Result: The climate lobbying proposal received 27.98 percent, the largest vote for a climate lobbying proposal in Japan; results for the other two proposals not stated in source.
Nippon Steel Corporation, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, 2024
Set short, medium and long-term targets in line with the IEA Net Zero 2050 scenario (29 percent Scope 1 cut by 2030 and 91 percent by 2050), report by end of 2022 on the feasibility of carbon capture or hydrogen direct reduced iron routes, align capex with net zero and avoid new unabated capacity, and specify policy positions on carbon pricing and border adjustment.
Result: The release states that nine companies representing about 20 percent of global steel production, including the five largest producers, had set net zero commitments.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.