POSCO

Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.

POSCO's core business is blast-furnace steelmaking emitting ~71 million tonnes of CO₂ per year as of 2024; HyREX produces only pilot-scale volumes (24 t/day) and the 300,000 t/yr demonstration plant won't commission until ~2028, meaning current climate impact is overwhelmingly negative and decarbonisation is years from material scale.

Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.

POSCO has a 2050 net-zero declaration (made December 2020), a phased roadmap targeting only 10% absolute reduction by 2030 from a 2017–2019 baseline of 78.8 Mt—weak near-term ambition—and no SBTi-validated targets; CDP score was B for Climate Change in 2024, and Scope 3 verification began only in 2022, leaving targets credible in structure but well below science-based 1.5°C requirements.

Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.

POSCO maintains structured ESG governance with quarterly board-level decarbonisation reviews, improving LTIFR safety metrics (down 27% 2022–2023), and an internal carbon pricing system introduced in 2024, but independent labour rights groups have documented union-busting at a Turkish facility where courts confirmed unlawful dismissals of workers attempting to organise.

Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.

POSCO has disclosed to CDP since 2003, adopted TCFD frameworks first among Korean manufacturers in 2020, publishes quantified Scope 1/2/3 GHG data with third-party verification (Scope 3 since 2022), and introduced internal carbon pricing in 2024, providing above-average transparency for a heavy industrial peer, though SBTi validation is absent and HyREX commercialisation assumptions remain unverified.

Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.

IndustriALL documented credible union-busting at POSCO's Turkish plant—courts confirmed unlawful dismissals in 2017 and the company refused mandatory mediation and collective bargaining through 2023—creating a material gap between ESG report claims of union engagement and actual conduct; no major financial fraud or conflict-zone controversies were identified, but the labour record is a meaningful integrity deduction.