The global steel sector is making progress towards reducing its CO2 emissions but is not yet on track to half CO2 emissions by 2030 or fully decarbonise by 2050, which supports other studies. This report estimates that the global steel sector could potentially reduce CO2 emissions between 7-10% in 2030 and 30-39% in 2050, when compared to the baseline scenario, through full implementation of existing GHG reduction targets in steel producing companies. This is equivalent to a reduction from 2019 levels between 6-12% in 2030 and 36-50% in 2050.

Author: Maria Jose de Villafranca Casa, Anna Nilsson, Sybrig Smit, Joël Beuerle, Takeshi Kuramochi, 2022

This report provides the following suggestions to fix the The Korea Emission Trading Scheme (K-ETS): (1) Adjustment of emissions cap in accordance with the enhanced 2030 NDC, (2) Substantial increase of auctioning in light of the EU CBAM, (3) Price floors to safeguard the incentives for emissions reduction, (4) Implementation of coal generation cap or a single benchmark for coal and LNG in order to facilitate reductions in the power sector, (5) Fundamental change to calculation of the total emissions cap.

This report focuses on comparing the criteria air pollutants emissions intensities for the steel industry in selected countries. It is hoped that the benchmarking of criteria air pollutants emissions intensities will help policymakers prioritize abatement of specific criteria air pollutants and design policies for the curtailment of their emissions.

Author: Ali Hasanbeigi, Navdeep Bhadbhade, Ahana Ghosh, 2022

“The global market for low-CO2 materials could reach 100 USD billion by 2030”, depicting that the opportunity is there - but what about the technology? This study explores the momentum of clean technology development in the industrial sector, as well as what policy areas can be intertwined to increase the production of low-CO2 materials.

Author: Material Economics, 2022

This study gives a breakdown of ResponsibleSteel, the CEM IDDI, and the US federal Buy Clean program, analyzes their policy goals and their political implications, and provides recommendations on how to make them more effective.

Author: Mary Hellmich (adelphi) & Sarah Jackson (E3G), 2022

SteelZero announced the policy principles required to be implemented by governments to aid in accelerating the global transition to net zero steel. These outlined principles will also provide business with the required information to advocate for the critical changes that are needed in all areas steel.

Author: Climate Group, 2022

Want to know more about Japan and South Korea Steel sector but don't know how? InfluenceMap's report "The Japanese and South Korean Steel Sectors & Climate Policy" compares how well East Asian steelmakers perform on climate policy engagement. Unfortunately, it has been identified that Japan and South Korean steel companies fall immensely low on the ladder. By drawing on these stark conclusions, they have put forward recommendations for investors that would move these nations into the front runner space on leading the way to safer climate.

Author: InfluenceMap, 2022

A short fact sheet on steel industrial transformation, outlining the problems and solutions for the United States steel industry.

Author: Sierra Club, 2022

Ben Beachy's article imagines a comprehensive green industrial policy in the United States that could articulate the next margin for climate activists and policymakers.

Author: Ben Beachy, 2022

Where there's a will there's a way, so goes the saying - but is there a way for decarbonising energy-intensive industries? In this episode of the Tata Steel podcast, with guest Gareth Stace who is the Director General of Trade Association UK Steel, they discuss the importance of a supportive political framework. The conversation covers a range of intersecting topics including the challenges faced when ensuring policies in this energy arena, as well as how energy-intensive industries rely on these policies to achieve decarbonisation.

Author: Tata Steel, 2022

This report by TransitionZero and Global Efficiency Intelligence presents a study on steel production costs in major steel producing countries around the world. The analysis is carried out both at the country-level and plant-level, and showcases yearly production costs between 2019 to 2021, broken down by the major cost components of the steel production: namely raw materials, energy, labor, and “other costs”. In addition to estimating total steel production cost in each country, we have also estimated the steel production cost for both primary steelmaking, using blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF), and secondary steelmaking using electric arc furnace (EAF), separately.

This study estimated the CO2 emissions associated with cement and steel used in public construction projects and the potential impact of Buy Clean to reduce those emissions. Approximately half of the annual CO2 emissions associated with cement consumption is associated with public construction which was around 36 Mt CO2 in 2018. Of this, around 25% is associated with government-funded projects using federal funds and the remaining is related to public projects using states and local governments-own funds.

This report, part of the China Energy and Climate Program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, assesses how China’s high-emitting industries have responded to the 30-60 targets and the accompanying elevation of climate within national policy priorities. It focuses on corporate and sectoral emissions reduction targets through June 2021 among 30 major firms in three of China’s largest sources of direct emissions: coal power generation, cement, and steel.

Author: Edmund Downie, 2021

Fostering the industry transition through green public procurement is easier said than done. In this paper, Fostering industry transition through green public procurement: A how to guide in the cement & steel sectors, produced by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), it presents a “how-to guide” for the cement and steel sectors. This guide includes a breakdown of the elements of green public procurement policy design, and the methodologies required for target setting.

Author: United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) & Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), 2021

The iron and steel industry is a major industrial emitter of carbon dioxide globally and in Germany. If European and German climate targets were set as equal proportional reduction targets (referred to here as “flat” targets) among sectors, the German steel industry would have to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions from about 60 million metric tons currently to 28–34 million metric tons by 2030. Technical options to further reduce CO2 that are based on existing production processes are limited. Hence, in the future, the CO2 emissions of the steel industry could be reduced by alternative and new production processes and variations in production levels. This paper describes four production pathways from 2015 to 2035 that reveal the impact of constant, increasing and decreasing production levels as well as different production processes.

This study uses a bottom-up energy consumption model to analyze four steel-production and energy-efficiency scenarios and evaluate the potential for energy savings from energy-efficient technologies in China’s iron and steel industry between 2010 and 2050. The results show that China’s steel production will rise and peak in the year 2020 at 860 million tons (Mt) per year for the base-case scenario and 680 Mt for the advanced energy-efficiency scenario

The iron and steel industry is one of the most energy-intensive and polluting industries in China. This industry accounted for approximately 27% of China’s primary energy use for the manufacturing industry in 2010. Also, China’s steel production represented around 47% of the world steel production that year. Hence, reducing energy use and air pollutant emissions from the Chinese steel industry not only has significant implications for China but also for the entire world. For this reason, it is crucial and it is the aim of this study to analyze influential factors that affected the energy use of the steel industry in the past in order to try to quantify the likely effect of those factors in the future.

This report consolidates available information on 56 emerging iron and steel industry technologies, with the intent of providing a well-structured database of information on these technologies for engineers, researchers, investors, steel companies, policy makers, and other interested parties. For each technology included, we provide information on energy savings and environmental and other benefits, costs, and commercialization status; we also identify references for more information.

China’s annual crude steel production in 2010 was 638.7 Mt accounting for nearly half of the world’s annual crude steel production in the same year. Around 461 TWh of electricity and 14,872 PJ of fuel were consumed to produce this quantity of steel in 2010. We identified and analyzed 23 energy efficiency technologies and measures applicable to the processes in the iron and steel industry. The Conservation Supply Curve (CSC) used in this study is an analytical tool that captures both the engineering and the economic perspectives of energy conservation. Using a bottom-up electricity CSC model, the cumulative cost-effective electricity savings potential for the Chinese iron and steel industry for 2010-2030 is estimated to be 251 TWh, and the total technical electricity saving potential is 416 TWh.