Climate change and the production of iron and steel

Date Submitted: 20/05/2021

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today releases a public policy paper, Climate change and the production of iron and steel. The paper outlines the steel industry’s challenges and opportunities with respect to reducing CO2 emissions in line with the aims of the Paris Agreement.

Steel production remains a CO2 and energy-intensive activity. However, the steel industry is committed to continuing to reduce the footprint from its operations and the use of its products. There is no single solution to drastically reducing CO2 emissions from our industry and we believe that individual countries are best placed to assess and implement policy and technical strategies to suit their particular circumstances. However, the main elements of the industry’s response, applicable to steel producers everywhere, are:

  • Reducing our own impact
  • Efficiency and the circular economy
  • Developing advanced steel products to enable societal transformations

Edwin Basson, Director General, worldsteel, said, ‘what is absolutely clear is that governments and other stakeholders will need to work with the steel industry to overcome the technological and economic challenges and create the market conditions necessary for the steel industry to transition to low-carbon steelmaking effectively.’

Åsa Ekdahl, Head, Environment and Climate Change, worldsteel is presenting the contents of the paper in a webinar on Wednesday 19 May from 15.00 – 16.00 CET (13.00 – 14.00 UTC), ‘Climate Change and the Production of Iron and Steel: An Industry View.’ Åsa is secretary to worldsteel’s Environment Committee and leads worldsteel’s engagement with international organisations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The webinar is a steelTalk, part of the series of free-to-attend monthly webinars organised by steeluniversity, worldsteel’s learning and training programme.

Source : World Steel Association