A growing chorus of international bodies are calling for accelerated decarbonisation in the steel industry, and are singling out BlueScope's steel's plans for the Port Kembla steelworks, as the company is only weeks away from giving the $1 billion tick to coal-based steelmaking.
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The UK-based NGO SteelWatch launched in June and began by targeting BlueScope's plan to re-line its mothballed no.6 blast furnace.
Caroline Ashley, director of SteelWatch, said BlueScope was at a turning point in the pathway to net zero.
"Bluescope's plan to spend a billion dollars on relining one of its blast furnaces is incompatible with Australia's climate goals; we urge the company to reconsider its decision and focus on coal-free steelmaking technologies," Ms Ashley said.
The organisation is calling for no new or relined coal-based blast furnaces anywhere in OECD countries or OECD-based companies.
This "red line" would push the steel industry to decarbonise in line with IPCC global emission reduction targets keeping climate change within the 1.5 degree range.
The launch follows the report of German think tank Agora Industry, which said green steel technologies were ready and attracting investment in Europe and North America.
BlueScope is currently planning to re-line the dormant no. 6 blast furnace using traditional, coal-fired blast furnace technology, however has said the project would be a bridge to future "green steel" production.
This timeline, and similar pathways from other global steelmakers is increasingly being called out as being too slow, and locking in a significant amount of carbon emissions as the globe races to decarbonise.
The steel industry alone accounts for between seven and nine per cent of total CO2 emissions, equivalent to the total national emissions of the world's third largest polluter, India.
US-based Global Energy Monitor said in a report released on Thursday, July 20 that current investments in coal-fired steel making could see US$554 billion in stranded investment, with current investment in low-emissions steelmaking moving too slowly to meet net zero timelines.
"Existing BF-BOF [blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace] capacity must be closed and planned BF-BOF capacity cancelled," the report's authors state.
With global demand for steel critical in the build out of renewable energy infrastructure, the decarbonisation of the steel production sector will be critical for the world to limit global warming, with the industry at a tipping point, Caitlin Swalec, program director for heavy industry at Global Energy Monitor said.
"The transition away from coal-based steelmaking is underway but moving far too slowly. Developers that add coal-based capacity now run the risk of facing billions in write downs in the future."
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