Presentation on the Opportunities and Challenges for the Steel Industry to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Hosted by KIM Sung-Hwan (National Assembly Member), Solutions for Our Climate. Supported by European Union

Leadit report “From ‘Hard-to-Abate’ to Net-Zero: Policy Priorities for Decarbonizing Steel by 2050” draws on the best available data, to stress the urgency required to initiate the sector’s transition. There is no debate that rapid action is needed to prevent new blast furnaces from being added, as well as existing ones from being relined - all by 2025.

Author: Leadit, 2021

So, why does the global steel sector need to invest in climate-neutral technologies in the decade of the 2020s and not the latter? Agora's paper identifies that 71% of the coal-based blast furnaces used in the steel industry will actually finish their functioning lifespan before we reach the year of 2030. Essentially this means that these critical decisions about where re-investments are needed, have to be made now. As result, this means that any decisions made after 2030 about investments or carbon capture and storage will carry a high risk.

Author: Agora, 2021

The steel sector, as well as the world, have been given the challenge that emissions from steel production must be reduced to net zero by 2050. However Matthew-Wenban Smith at Chatham House’s Sustainability Accelerator argues that there very well may be a better benchmark mechanism for the sector.

Author: Matthew-Wenban Smith, 2021

CarbonCopy focuses on the topic of energy consumption through the telling of a tale in their piece "What Tata Steel's attempts to decarbonise tell us". It follows two steel companies and what their contradictory approaches articulate to us about India’s response to the renewables revolution. Ultimately it raises the question of, “are India’s manufacturing value chains ready for the energy transition?”

Author: CarbonCopy, 2021

How can green public procurement create momentum? Rana Ghoneim, Chief of the Energy Systems and Infrastructure Division at the UN’s Industrial Development Organization, joins the podcast Decarb Connect to discuss her and the organisation’s contributions to help ignite the implement of green public procurement. They also deep dive into the impact on the market for low carbon products and green infrastructure.

Author: Decarb Connect, 2021

In order to achieve the 1.5°C pathway, all sectors must keep in line and there can be no outliers - the steel sector is no exception to this. Steel decarbonisation has to occur rapidly, including a combined effort from national and international levels to underpin the shift in policy and the sector as a whole. Written by E3G in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, "1.5C Steel: decarbonising the steel sector in Paris-compatible pathways" examines those challenges at global and regional levels, by unpacking the implications for the steel decarbonisation transformation pathway.

Author: E3G & Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2021

How do we actually achieve net-zero across these different sectors? The Stockholm Environment Institute collaborates with sustainability experts to decipher exactly what is required from these sectors to reach the net zero transitions. They also dive into the idea of “active engagement”, explaining the importance of such interactions from investors and what they need to know to have economic impact on these high-emitting sectors.

Author: Stockholm Environment Institute, 2021

Most of steel is currently produced in blast furnaces and if it weren't for this technology, steel mass production would never have been possible in the first place. However, if we face 10 more years of inaction, steel consumes 12% of the remaining 1.5°C carbon budget. "Phasing out the blast furnace to meet global climate targets" paper identifies that there is a greater opportunity to reduce emissions than first noted. It all comes down to equipment-level analyses that are conducted and ensuring that reinvestments aren’t supporting coal-based blast furnaces. This opportunity and approach can also be applied to other industries that prove to be emission-intensive.

Author: Valentin Vogl, Olle Olsson & Björn Nykvist, 2021

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a special report that identifies to policy makers the cruciality of what needs to be done for the global energy sector to reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. It is clear that with the energy sector being the core source of greenhouse gas emissions, that all governments need to strengthen together and implement policies that support this transition.

Author: IEA, 2021

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.

The New Yorker's contributing writer Matthew Hutson has identified a new manufacturing technique that may lead to radically reducing the greenhouse-gas emissions of one the modern world’s most used materials. You guessed it, we are talking about steel. In "The Promise of Carbon-Neutral Steel" article, Matthew Hutson tells you more about this technology, and how it could be deployed on a large scale to guide the future towards a clean steel industry.

Author: Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 2021

Are European steel companies ready for the climate transition? Industry Tracker set out to answer this through its report "Steeling for net zero". By focusing on 10 of the largest primary steel producing companies in Europe, they have provided an in-depth assessment on just how well positioned each are to initiate transition plans to net-zero. Check out the report to know the final ranking of each company!

Author: Industry Tracker, 2021

“What climate impacts does burning coking coal have? What are the social and ecological impacts of mining coal? How can we decarbonise the steel sector?” These and other key questions guide Coal Action Network UK report "Coal in Steel: Problems and solutions". Their report is directed at those on the search for the basics about proposed new coal mines, and why there needs to be campaigns against them.

Author: Coal Action Network, 2021

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

Investors are a key contributing factor to the decarbonisation of the steel sector. This report provides investors with the critical details of how they can help with. this transition in the sector. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) report discusses the steel sector itself, the decarbonisation journey ahead, and what is required to overcome the perceived obstacles to reach net zero by 2050.

Author: Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), 2021

With 2030 approaching, all investments in the steel sector must align with the net-zero goal. This means that investors should be making these decisions now due to lifespan of steel assets. Material Economics' provides investors with recommendations on how to become involved in the commercialisation of low-CO₂ steel technologies.

Author: Material Economics, 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

In a worldsteel’s steelBlog post “What we mean when we talk about low-carbon steel”, Andrew Purvis and Nicholas Walters provide clarity on the common terminology used in the steel decarbonisation space. Their discussion defines and draws the line between green steel, net-zero steel, zero-carbon steel and low-carbon steel.

Author: Andrew Purvis & Nicholas Walters, World Steel Association, 2021

BHP’s second episode in their “Pathways to Decarbonisation” series dives into the details of how steel is manufactured. From here, they explain in a non-technical tone the strategies and technologies required for the steel decarbonisation journey. This episode is accompanied by infographics, videos and visual diagrams that will give you a sense of ease in understanding the basics.

Author: Dr Ben Ellis & Wenjun Bao, BHP, 2020