The Met Coal Exit List (MCEL) is a public database of coal companies which are expanding their met coal mining activities, featuring 160 companies worldwide. Finnish major financiers hold shares in some companies listed in the MCEL.
This year the Paris Agreement will celebrate its 10th anniversary, but the 1.5° C target has never seemed further out of reach. Current climate protection efforts are failing and real progress must include sectors often deemed difficult to decarbonize — like the steel industry. Due to its reliance on coal, the iron and steel sector is responsible for 11% of global CO2 emissions.
Coal used by the steel industry is referred to as metallurgical (met) coal and includes
coking coal, which is needed to produce coke, a key ingredient in blast furnace steel production. While steel was long considered to be a hard-to-abate sector, new technologies now enable the shift to coal-free steel production methods. According to the think-tank Agora Industry, a phase-out of coal in the steel sector by the early 2040s is technically feasible. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), existing production sources can cover the demand for met coal through 2050. Even the Critical Raw Material Alliance acknowledges that global met coal production already surpasses demand by 37%. To put it differently: there is no need for new met coal production.
Many of the largest met coal miners are, however, still planning to expand their production. All in all, MCEL identifies 160 mining companies which are pursuing 252 met coal expansion projects in 18 countries. The planned production from new and extended met coal mines would equal 551 million metric tons per year and would increase the world’s current met coal production by 50%.
Many thermal coal producing companies attempt to prolong their coal-dependent business plans by increasing the share of met coal in their operations. The majority of banks and insurance companies have incorporated an exclusion policy for thermal coal in response to the Paris climate agreement. A similar exclusion policy is missing for metallurgical coal producers, and coal companies are now trying to leverage this loophole. Among Finnish banks Nordea and OP have investments in companies listed in the MCEL. Out of 386 biggest financial institutions globally, 183 have set an exclusion policy for thermal coal, while only 16 have set an exclusion policy for metallurgical coal. Financiers must acknowledge that coal is coal and exclude companies expanding metallurgical coal production from their investment portfolios, in order to stop the 1,5 degree target slipping further out of reach.
The Metallurgical Coal Exit List is published by Urgewald and Reclaim Finance, BankTrack, SteelWatch, Global Energy Monitor (GEM), Coal Action Network, Coal-free Finland, Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance, Ecodefense, Rainforest Action Network and The Sunrise Project.