About
Heavy Industries Benchmark
The 2024 Climate and Energy Benchmark assessing the heavy industries sector, measures and ranks 91 of the world’s most influential heavy industries companies on their low-carbon transition for the first time.
The Heavy Industries Benchmark combines the ACT (aluminium, cement and steel) and just transition methodologies to provide an overall score and ranking of the companies. By considering social and decarbonisation issues together, the benchmark mobilises stronger action needed to hold companies accountable on contributing towards a low-carbon transition that leaves no one behind.
The companies’ targets and performance are assessed against their 1.5°C (2.7°F) pathways to see if they are on track to meet the Paris Agreement goals. In 2022, emissions from the industries where of 9.15 Gt, constituting about 25% of global energy-related CO2 emissions (IEA, 2024). Emissions from cement production were in 2022 of 2.4 Gt (IEA, 2024), the steel industry emitted over 3.6 Gt CO2 (Global Energy Monitor 2022) and emissions associated with the production of aluminium about 1Gt (International Aluminium, 2024).
In the short term, technology performance improvements and material efficiency contribute the most to emissions reductions in heavy industries. However, in the long term, a deeper structural change is required with the adoption of new technologies production processes.
By 2050, 95% of CO2 in cement production will have to be captured and stored, and 96% of primary steel production will need to come from near-zero carbon processes, notably using green hydrogen (IEA 2022).
Ultimately, our Climate and Energy Benchmark will cover the rankings of 450 of the world’s most influential, companies in high-emitting sectors including automotive, heavy industries, oil and gas, transport, real estate and buildings development/construction. These sector benchmarks will be regularly updated.
About our partners
About Accelerate Climate Transition (ACT): ACT is a joint voluntary initiative recognised by the UNFCCC secretariat Global Climate Agenda and supported by the French government. It aims at driving companies’ climate actions to align their strategies with low-carbon pathways. ACT provides an accountability framework to assess how companies’ strategies and transition plans contribute to the Paris Agreement mitigation goals. ACT takes an integrated and forward-looking approach to measure quantitatively and qualitatively decarbonisation performance across the past, present and future focusing on the major emissions sources in the business value chain. Publicly available assessment methodologies are sector specific responding to each sector’s own transition challenges. A complementary method that equips less mature businesses to develop robust low carbon strategies and implement relevant transition plans. Visit actinitiative.org to find out more.