According to an announcement Thursday from the non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute, which is facilitating the effort, the banks, Citi, Goldman Sachs, ING, Société Générale, Standard Chartered and UniCredit, intend to establish a collective climate-aligned finance agreement. 

Climate-aligned finance is an effort to bring the lending and investment portfolios of financial institutions in line with the Paris Agreement. 

As members of the steel climate-aligned finance working group, the banks will set the scope, emissions pathways, methodologies, and governance structure of a steel climate-aligned finance agreement. 

“The steel sector’s carbon intensity raises expectations of and from financial institutions to support its decarbonization, but to date, financial institutions lack the common practical tools to effectively support their clients’ decarbonization efforts,” the institute said in a statement. 

The steel working group is meant to address that. The effort will be led by ING and co-led by Société Générale​, and it comprises senior representatives from each bank’s metals and mining teams.

“Steel is essential for modern life. The challenge for the steel sector to decarbonize is significant with alternative technology paths unproven and not yet commercialized. By leading this working group we signal our commitment to help define what the energy transition means for the sector and our clients,” said Arnout van Heukelem, global head of metals, mining and fertilizers at ING Bank.