The Global Steel Climate Council issued a “steel climate standard”, a coalition of Western NGOS said that it does not take into account process differences and is meaningless for the low-carbon transition of the steel industry

In early August, the Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC) officially released the “Steel Climate Standard” (hereinafter referred to as the “Standard”). In response, a group of Western ngos, including the Mission Possible Partnership and Steel Watch, recently issued an open letter calling on “steel companies and users of steel products around the world to ignore the ‘standards’ issued by the Global Steel Climate Council.” The above organizations believe that this “standard” only benefits a small number of steel enterprises in some developed countries, and does not consider the difference between steel production processes, and is not a practical policy to help the global steel industry low-carbon transformation.

Margaret Hansbrough, director of Steel Watch, said the steel industry accounts for 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Because it does not take into account the difference between producing steel from scrap and iron ore, the “standard” issued by the Global Steel Climate Council does not effectively urge all steel companies to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, promoting carbon reduction in the global steel industry cannot be achieved solely by recycling scrap steel. Any climate standard that revolves around the steel sector must be accompanied by effective incentives and constraints to incentivise producers of primary steel (steel produced using iron ore) to move away from coal and towards other proven solutions.

The director of the Viable Mission Partnership believes that the “standard” issued by the Global Steel Climate Council is in competition with the standard system proposed by other stakeholders, such as Responsible Steel. The “standard” issued by the Global Steel Climate Council disrupts the market and does not have the capacity to help the steel industry achieve real carbon reduction. This “standard” ignores the environmental and social impact of other links in the steel industry chain. As upstream and downstream manufacturers continue to seek opportunities to reduce carbon emissions across the industry chain, global certification of low-carbon steel is even more important.

Matthew Groch, director of the Great Earth Low Carbon Campaign, said the “standards” issued by the Global Steel Climate Council will not really help steel companies reduce carbon emissions, nor will they help meet the emission reduction targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement.

In late April 2023, the Global Steel Climate Council released the draft Steel Climate Standard. This is a global standard for measuring and reporting the carbon intensity of steel. The standard establishes a single, process-independent standard and mandates global steelmakers to set science-based emissions targets based on it.

According to the Global Steel Climate Council, other climate groups in the United States and Europe are advocating for a “prorated scrap usage” standard that sets two more specific standards around carbon reduction in steelmaking: one for iron ore based steel production and another for electric arc furnace processes.

The Washington-based Global Steel Climate Council, a non-profit association of more than 30 international members including steelmakers, steel users, scrap suppliers and trade associations, was established on November 17, 2022, to urge the United States and the European Union to adopt uniform emissions standards and encourage local steel mills to use low-carbon production processes. Reduce carbon emissions.