Ontario's steel industry is aiming for a dramatic reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions, a move that will help Premier Doug Ford's government get closer to achieving its climate-change targets.
The three biggest industrial emitters of CO2 in Ontario are all steel plants. Steel production alone accounts for more than 40 per cent of all industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the province, more than the refinery, forestry, mining and chemical sectors combined.
But a push is now on — funded in part by nearly $2 billion from provincial and federal taxpayers — to convert Ontario's steel plants to using lower-carbon sources of energy. The expected reductions in CO2 emissions stand to make this the Ford government's single biggest initiative on climate change.
The latest step toward what's being dubbed "green steel" is Ford's announcement of a $500 million provincial government contribution to ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton, the biggest producer of flat-rolled steel in the country and the single biggest industrial source of CO2 emissions in Ontario.
The plan is to convert Dofasco's coal-fired blast furnaces to electric-powered systems by 2028.
"Car-makers are investing billions and billions of dollars searching for ways to reduce carbon emissions along their supply chain," Ford said in a news conference Tuesday. "Well, I have news for all of them. That search starts and ends right here in Hamilton with Dofasco Steel."