Steel coalition promotes standard to measure, reduce carbon emissions
Author: Deanne Toto
The GSCC asserts that any agreement on a new emissions standard for steel production should focus on the amount of emissions generated, not on how steel is made. Much of world's steel production is extremely carbon-intensive because it primarily relies on mined and processed coal, iron ore and limestone, the coalition says. However, other steelmakers, including those producing more than 70 percent of all U.S. and more than 40 percent of all European manufactured steel today, use electric arc furnaces (EAFs) that principally input recycled scrap to produce steel, generating significantly lower carbon emissions. The GSCC says it supports a global standard to accelerate the transition to low-emission steel and recognize the potential of the recycled, circular steel model to reduce carbon emissions. A "sliding scale" standard suppod by high-emission steelmakers would set greenhouse gas emission standards ceilings up to nine times higher for extractive versus recycled products, the GSCC says, penalizing EAF producers and permitting higher-emission steel to be erroneously labeled as "green." Under a sliding scale, two steel products could be classified as equally "green," even though one was produced by creating multiple times more carbon emissions than the other, the coalition adds.