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A climate club to decarbonize the global steel industry

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 494–496 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 06 June 2022

This article has been updated

Decarbonizing global steel production requires a fundamental transformation. A sectoral climate club, which goes beyond tariffs and involves deep transnational cooperation, can facilitate this transformation by addressing technical, economic and political uncertainties.

Steel is an essential ingredient of modern economies. It is used in consumer products and embedded in infrastructures that underpin global societies. Its production is currently highly energy- and emissions-intensive. In 2019, direct CO2 emissions from steelmaking accounted for 7% of global CO2 emissions (10% if indirect emissions from electricity consumption are included)1. To achieve decarbonization, the sector requires deep transformation as current technologies provide only limited mitigation potential2. Moreover, steel is an internationally traded commodity. Consequently, any ambitious decarbonization policy will have international ramifications. Hence, the steel industry has become a focal point of political considerations for developing a ‘climate club’. For instance, the European Union and United States agreed to launch negotiations for “arrangements to restore market-oriented conditions and address carbon intensity” for the aluminium and steel industry, inviting “like-minded economies to participate”3. Moreover, the German government seeks to initiate a climate club leveraging the German G7 presidency in 20224, highlighting steel as a pilot sector5.

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Fig. 1: The global steel decarbonization technology gap.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 101003866 (NDC ASPECTS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Wuppertal, Germany

    Lukas Hermwille, Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Annika Tönjes, Manfred Fischedick, Clemens Schneider & Wolfgang Obergassel

  2. Energy and Environmental System Studies, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Stefan Lechtenböhmer & Max Åhman

  3. University of Eastern Finland, Law School, Joensuu, Finland

    Harro van Asselt, Sebastian Oberthür & Catherine Hall

  4. Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Harro van Asselt

  5. Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales (IDDRI), Paris, France

    Chris Bataille

  6. Simon Fraser University Faculty of the Environment, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Chris Bataille

  7. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Networked Energy Systems, Stuttgart, Germany

    Stefan Kronshage & Patrick Jochem

  8. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Sebastian Oberthür

  9. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India

    Amit Garg & Saritha Sudharmma Vishwanathan

  10. Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Ryna Cui

  11. E3-Modelling, Athens, Greece

    Panagiotis Fragkos

  12. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Saritha Sudharmma Vishwanathan

  13. Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Hilton Trollip

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  1. Lukas Hermwille
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Contributions

L.H., S.L., H.v.A., C.B. and S.O. conceptualized the article. C.B. provided data for Fig. 1. L.H. wrote the initial draft and coordinated the reviewing and editing process. All authors contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lukas Hermwille.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hermwille, L., Lechtenböhmer, S., Åhman, M. et al. A climate club to decarbonize the global steel industry. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 494–496 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01383-9

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