Vale
What do our scores mean?
The organizational score represents the degree to which the organization influencing climate policy and legislation. Corporations also have relationship scores reflecting their links with influencers like trade associations. Both are combined to place the corporation in a performance band. Full details can be found here.
Engagement Intensity
The engagement intensity (EI) is a metric of the extent to which the company is engaging on climate change policy matters, whether positively or negatively. It is a number from 0 (no engagement at all) to 100 (full engagement on all queries/data points). Clearly energy companies are more affected by climate regulations and will have a higher EI than, for example retailers. So an organization’s score should be looked at in conjunction with this metric to gauge the amount of evidence we are using in each case as a basis for scoring. On our scale, an EI of more than 35 indicates a relatively large amount of climate policy engagement.
Relationship Score, December 2020
A new batch of industry associations has been uploaded onto the InfluenceMap system and the relationship scores recalculated accordingly.
Updated terminology, February 2021
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
- Details of Organization Score
-
What do the 0,1,2 and NSs, NAs mean?
Each cell in the organization's matrix presents a chance for us to assess each data source against our column of climate change policy queries. We score from -2 to 2, with negative scores representing evidence of obstructive influence. "NA" means "not applicable" and "NS" means "not scored" - that is we did not find any evidence either way. In both cases, the cell's weighting is re-distributed over others. Red and blue cells represent highly interesting negative or positive influence respectively. Full details can be found here.
- Details of Relationship Score
-
What is the Relationship Score
A corporation, as well as its organizational score will have a relationship score. It is computed by aggregating the organizational scores of the Influencers (trade bodies etc.) it has relationships with, weighted by both the strength of these relationships and the relative importance of the Influencers towards climate change policy. Full details can be found here.
|
QUERIES
|
DATA SOURCES | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Main Web Site
The main organizational Web site of the company and its direct links to major affiliates and attached documents. |
Social Media
We search other media and sites funded or controlled by the organization, such as social media (Twitter, Facebook) and direct advertising campaigns of the organization. |
CDP Responses
We assess and score responses to two questions from CDP's climate change information request (12.3 a & 12.3c) related to political influence questions (currently these are not numerically scored by the CDP process). |
Legislative Consultations
Comments from the entity being scored on governmental regulatory consultation processes, including those obtained by InfluenceMap through Freedom of Information requests. |
Media Reports
Here we search in a consistent manner (the organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
CEO Messaging
Here we search in a consistent manner (the CEO/Chairman, organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
Financial Disclosures
We search 10-K and 20-F SEC filings where available, and non US equivalents where not. . |
EU Register
Information provided by to the voluntary EU Transparency Register. |
|
|
Communication of Climate Science
Is the organization transparent and clear about its position on climate change science? |
1
|
NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
|
1
|
NA |
|
Alignment with IPCC on Climate Action
Is the organization supporting the science-based response to climate change as set out by the IPCC? (the IPCC) |
1
|
NS | NA | NS | NS |
1
|
NS | NA |
|
Supporting the Need for Regulations
To what extent does the organization express the need for regulatory intervention to resolve the climate crisis? |
1
|
NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
|
NS | NA |
|
Support of UN Climate Process
Is the organization supporting the UN FCCC process on climate change? |
0
|
NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
|
0
|
NA |
|
Transparency on Legislation
Is the organisation transparent about its positions on climate change legislation/policy and its activities to influence it? |
0
|
NA |
1
|
NA | NA | NA | NS | NS |
|
Carbon Tax
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: carbon tax. |
0
|
NS |
-1
|
NS |
-1
|
0
|
NS | NA |
|
Emissions Trading
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: emissions trading. |
0
|
NS |
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
NA |
|
Energy and Resource Efficiency
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: energy efficiency policy, standards, and targets |
NS | NS |
1
|
NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
|
Renewable Energy
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Renewable energy legislation, targets, subsidies, and other policy |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
|
Energy Transition & Zero Carbon Technologies
Is the organization supporting an IPCC-aligned transition of the economy away from carbon-emitting technologies, including supporting relevant policy and legislative measures to enable this transition? |
1
|
-2
|
NS | NS |
-2
|
0
|
NS | NA |
|
GHG Emission Regulation
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: GHG emission standards and targets. Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Standards, targets, and other regulatory measures directly targeting Greenhouse Gas emissions |
0
|
NS | NS | NS |
-1
|
NS |
0
|
NA |
|
Disclosure on Relationships
Is the organization transparent about its involvement with industry associations that are influencing climate policy, including the extent to which it is aligned with these groups on climate? |
0
|
NS |
1
|
NA | NA | NA | NS | NS |
Open PDF file of Data Source
How to Read our Relationship Score Map
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
Climate Lobbying Overview: Vale appears broadly supportive of market-based policy mechanisms to combat climate change and has lobbied for the implementation of emissions trading schemes in Brazil, Canada, and the EU. Vale’s engagement with other forms of climate regulation and the energy mix is very limited, but the company retains membership to several industry associations with mixed positions on climate change.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Vale clearly recognizes the science of climate change in its corporate reporting in 2021, and appears generally supportive of climate action. In its 2019 Sustainability Report, published in April 2020, Vale expressed support for limiting global temperature increases to 2°C in line with the Paris Agreement, and also supported the decarbonization of the steel, metallurgical and shipping chains. Vale appears to support government intervention to price carbon into the economy. Vale’s ‘Climate Change’ webpage, accessed in February 2021, states support for climate policies which include a carbon price to “stimulate the transition to a low carbon economy”.
Engagement with Climate-related Regulations: Vale’s engagement with climate-related policy is largely focused on market-based mechanisms. Vale’s ‘Climate Change’ webpage on its corporate site, accessed in February 2021, appears to support carbon pricing policies including a carbon tax and emissions trading schemes. In Vale’s 2020 CDP response, the company disclosed its support for an emissions trading mechanism in Brazil. Vale’s 2019 CDP response supported carbon backloading under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to raise the carbon price and increase the effectiveness of the scheme.
Vale’s position on emissions trading in Canada is mixed. In its 2020 CDP response, Vale criticized the decision to scrap the Ontario Government’s cap and trade program in 2018. However, Vale’s opposition to the repeal of Ontario’s cap and trade program was primarily due to the risk of higher costs under Canada’s Federal Backstop program. Vale also appeared to oppose more ambitious GHG intensity thresholds under the Federal Backstop program in its 2020 CDP response.
Vale has had limited engagement with other strands of climate policy. The company appeared to support regulations focused on energy efficiency to achieve the International Maritime Organization’s GHG emissions reduction targets in its 2019 CDP response. However, in March 2018, Vale was reported to have lobbied against ambitious GHG targets for the shipping sector.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Vale has limited messaging around the energy transition. In 2017-18, Vale appeared to support a sustained role for coal in the energy mix. In 2018, Vale Mozambique CEO, Mario Godoy, stated that "the transition away from thermal coal will be lengthy". However, in its 2019 Sustainability Report, the company appeared to support policies aimed at the transition to a “resilient, low-carbon economy”.
Industry Association Governance: Vale has disclosed a list of industry association memberships on its corporate website and in its 2019 Sustainability Report. However, both disclosures have limited or no further details of the nature of Vale’s membership to each association or their climate policy positions. The company has also not completed an audit of its industry associations and their positions. Vale is a member of the European Steel Association (Eurofer), Eurometaux and the Mining Association of Canada, which have mixed engagement on climate change regulation.