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.
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.
"We have the technology
to reduce carbon emissions in steel production by 70 percent today," says
Leon Topalian, chair, president and CEO of Nucor
Corp., Charlotte, North Carolina, and a founding member of the GSCC.
"The global industry needs to build on the innovation that has already led
to cleaner steel production in the United States because the green and digital
economies around the world are going to be built with steel, and the steel they
are built with matters."
A "sliding scale" standard supported 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.