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The global steelmaking industry has taken an important symbolic step towards tackling its huge carbon emissions problem with ArcelorMittal’s unveiling of its low carbon steel initiative, Mighty Earth shows.
ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steel producers in the world, committed on March 17 to the development and deployment of two ranges of low carbon steel products, including a “certified green steel” line and a line of recycled low carbon steel, respectively. The World Steel Institute estimates that the steel sector is responsible for about eight percent of total global carbon dioxide emissions.
“ArcelorMittal’s initiative on low carbon steel marks a small step towards wider recognition by the steel sector of the urgent need to transition production systems to carbon neutral emission systems”, said Phelim Kine, Senior Director Asia at Mighty Earth. “ArcelorMittal has sent a clear signal that the current status quo on carbon emissions from steel production is both environmentally and economically unsustainable, but more dramatic carbon reductions by the steel sector are needed to align with a global warming trajectory of 1.5 ° C.
This low carbon steel initiative will produce only modest reductions in ArcelorMittal’s carbon emissions. The company’s new low-carbon product lines will only represent a maximum of 2% of ArcelorMittal’s total annual steel production by the end of 2022. ArcelorMittal plans to expand this production to a target ten percent of its total steel products by 2025-2030. This is a fraction of the reductions in industrial carbon emissions that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has deemed essential to limit the global warning to 1.5 ° C. by 2050. The IPCC warns that failure to meet this target will significantly increase “climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. of the company have explicitly linked the development of the product lines to the demands of government, society and customers for low carbon steel.
ArcelorMittal also announced the creation of a new “Innovation Fund†aimed at initiating the development of new technologies and companies dedicated to reducing carbon emissions from heavy industry. Company CEO Aditya Mittal stressed that the fund’s annual budget of $ 100 million was only a fraction of what was needed to transform the steel industry towards a low-carbon future. and said “We need partners†to accelerate these efforts. This admission is an implicit recognition of the need for significant investment by governments and the private sector to make the necessary revisions to the production chain across the heavy industry sector in order to align it with a global warming trajectory of 1.5 ° C.
ArcelorMittal’s initiative is in line with the objectives of a new international multi-stakeholder policy tool developed by Mighty Earth and The Climate Group dedicated to accelerating and intensifying the decarbonization of heavy industry for s ” align with a global warming trajectory of 1.5 ° C. This tool, the Global Framework Principles for the Decarbonization of Heavy Industry (“Framework Principles”), was launched last month after a drafting process that involved close coordination with industry and policy experts. worldwide. These principles constitute the very first publicly available global guidance on how to equitably balance economic growth and decarbonization.
The framework principles describe the role of governments and private industry in ensuring the successful decarbonization of heavy industries, including steel, cement and chemicals, through the allocation of public funding to reduction plans shows. The framework principles also specify investment in low and zero carbon technologies as a top priority for government and business to help phase out the use of fossil fuels in industrial processes. The growing number of heavy industry companies, including Tata Steel Ltd. and JSW Cement, reflects how companies are taking the lead in industrial decarbonization.
“ArcelorMittal’s initiative is expected to put urgent decarbonization at the top of the heavy industry sector’s priorities and catalyze private sector and government action to provide the necessary funding as well as the necessary policy and regulatory environment to accelerate this process, â€Kine said. “Avoiding the climate impacts of unmitigated high-carbon industrial emissions requires serious, timely and collaborative action by business and the political sector to prevent our planet from heating above 1.5 ° C.”
About Mighty Earth
Mighty Earth is a global campaign organization working to protect the environment. They focus on big issues: conserving endangered landscapes like tropical rainforests, protecting the oceans and addressing climate change. In fall 2018, Mighty Earth launched a global campaign calling on Nucor and other global steel leaders to commit to clean energy and carbon neutrality. The campaign published two groundbreaking reports: Cold Steel, Hot Climate and Construction Destruction. Both reports focused on the progress the steel and construction industries must make immediately to address the climate crisis and specifically outlined ways for Nucor to lead the low-carbon steel fabrication market. carbon by committing to produce clean electricity.
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