Miner Anglo American aims to invest in
start-ups developing technology to cut carbon emissions from steel-making and
lower the group’s carbon footprint, it said on Tuesday.
Anglo,
along with EU-funded EIT Raw Materials, has launched a competition to find
innovative small companies developing ways to reduce greenhouse gases from the
global steel sector, which is responsible for 8% of all CO2 emissions.
EIT
Raw Materials is implementing a European Union plan to provide the critical raw
materials needed to meet the bloc’s target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050.
As
shareholders increase pressure on companies to pollute less, Anglo is by far
the biggest company that EIT Raw Materials has worked with to develop
technologies by drawing in entrepreneurs and more are expected to collaborate.
“The
problems are so huge and manifold that many of the industry players can’t cope
with them anymore. On the other side, we really have the means to activate our
network,” Bernd Schaefer, managing director of EIT Raw Materials, said.
Anglo
produces iron ore, the raw material to make steel, and under carbon accounting
standards, a company is also responsible for indirect emissions from material
it sells to others, known as Scope 3 emissions.
“We
are looking not only at how we decarbonise our own operations, but also at how
we can reduce the emissions of our broader value chain,” Benny Oeyen, Anglo’s
executive head of market development, said.
Anglo,
which produced 59.3 million tonnes of iron ore last year, aims to halve its
Scope 3 indirect emissions by 2040.
Short-listed
companies will be assessed by Anglo’s decarbonised ventures team for potential
investment and given access to the group’s expertise.
EIT
Raw Materials has a portfolio of about 300 start-up companies targeting a range
of sectors, including exploration, processing, recycling and substitution.
The
group bills itself as the world’s largest innovation network in the raw
materials sector, with nearly 1,000 sources, including 300 of its own members
plus another 600 partners of the European Raw Materials Alliance.
These
include universities, research institutes and companies and organisations
straddling various sectors.
In
the past, major companies had big research departments and did everything
in-house, but the urgency of the green transformation requires new strategies,
Schaefer said.