GFG Alliance Executive Chairman Mr Sanjeev Gupta by saying that steel and aluminium are the building blocks of British economy and decarbonisation of steel can enrich both economy and environment, sustaining jobs and bringing down emissions urged that UK Government that “The Committee on Climate Change is right, we need to move further and faster. We now need an equally ambitious policy framework, alongside an ambitious industry. If the Government wants to lead the green industrial revolution, then steel is its litmus test.”
Mr Gupta wrote an article in City AM “Steel is responsible for nearly ten per cent of all direct emissions from fossil fuels and emits over three times as much carbon as the aviation industry. Put simply, if we don’t change the steel industry, we will fail to meet our carbon targets. That’s why I came out strongly in support of the UK’s Climate Change Committee last month when it urged the Government to target near zero emissions for steelmaking by 2035. Successive governments have seen steel as a problem to manage, rather than an opportunity. Industry is also to blame. It has lacked vision or sustained investment over many decades. But now, through decarbonisation, we have a chance to reinvent the sector and make it both economically successful and environmentally sustainable. Green manufacturing could add up to GBP 20 billion to UK GDP. But seizing the opportunity will require real mettle.”
Mr Gupta added “The UK has all the ingredients needed to make this change; a plentiful supply of scrap which can be recycled into fresh steel with just one third of the emissions of conventional production; a growing renewable energy supply that could make carbon free production viable; a skilled workforce; and consistent demand. So why is the industry not there yet? First, the UK steel industry has become fragmented – it lacks the consolidated mass needed to drive change. Second, there is a lack of industry collaboration to develop new technologies such as hydrogen steel making. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the UK needs a much stronger policy framework and incentives regime to drive decarbonisation and reward ambition.”
Specifically
Brexit presents the opportunity for a reformed UK carbon trading scheme that rewards low carbon steel producers and incentivises investment in low carbon technology such as electric arc furnaces
Consistent with this approach, government should remove the policy anomaly which subsidises coal use in steel production. We must accept that old-fashioned blast furnaces can’t be the basis of the industry long term and embrace green steel
An export tariff on steel scrap should also be introduced to encourage domestic recycling. If we stop exporting scrap and instead recycle it, we can meet nearly all of the UK’s demand for steel with domestic resources
Source : https://www.steelguru.com/steel