Climate change: global steel industry needs ‘rapid action’ to end coal use, reach net zero emissions by early 2040s, study says
- It is feasible to phase out coal in steelmaking by 2043 to 2045 without ‘premature shutdowns’ of plants, report by Agora Industry and Wuppertal Institute says
- Technologies required to reach net zero in steelmaking are available, but governments and firms need to join hands to deploy them quickly, Agora’s Frank Peter says
The global steel industry can achieve net zero emissions by the early 2040s, earlier than the 2050 global goal, but this will require “rapid action” by governments and the sector, including putting in place regulatory frameworks and scaling up new technologies to drive down costs, according to a study.
It is feasible to phase out coal in steelmaking by 2043 to 2045 without “premature shutdowns” of steel mills, German non-profit climate think tank Agora Industry and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy said in a joint report on Thursday, injecting a dose of optimism on decarbonising the hard-to-abate carbon-intensive industry.
“Our study shows that it is time to remove the ‘hard-to-abate’ label from the steel industry,” Frank Peter, director at Agora Industry, said in a statement. “The technologies and strategies required to reach net zero are already there – now governments and companies need to combine their efforts to deploy them fast.”
Higher material utilisation efficiency, a significant rise in steelmaking using recycled scraps and commercialisation of hydrogen-based steel production are key to achieving the ambition, according to the report.
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The steel industry’s carbon emissions of around 2.75 billion tonnes in 2021 – 7.5 per cent of global emissions – are projected to fall only to 1.8 billion tonnes by 2040 and to 1.12 billion tonnes by 2050 based on announced pledges by steelmakers, according to an International Energy Agency report published in October last year.