Climate pledges by major steel companies: a long way ahead towards zero emissions

Abstract This paper analyses the status, robustness, and the potential impact of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set by the largest steel producer companies. For the 60 largest steel companies by volume, covering more than 60% of global steel production, we collected data on the targets and emission reduction measures from publicly available documents. We found that only 26 companies have their own greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of varying timeframes between 2025 and 2050. Even when excluding the 18 Chinese state-owned companies that are under the national 2060 net zero target, 16 companies had no emission reduction targets. Eighteen companies had long term targets (2040 of after), of which 15 were net zero emission targets; all but one also had interim targets. If all climate targets of the 26 companies with a target are achieved, CO2 emissions could be up to 11% lower in 2030 and up to 41% lower in 2050 in comparison to a baseline scenario. Assuming a gradual increase in global crude steel demand from 1.9 Gt in 2019 to 2.5 Gt in 2050 and assuming similar trends for the rest of the global steel industry as observed for the 60 companies, we estimate that the current ambition of the global steel industry on emission reductions would lead to a reduction of 37–51% by 2050 from 2019 levels (3.4 GtCO2 to 1.7–2.2 GtCO2), or compared to a 9–18% reduction in a baseline scenario. Steel companies are also lagging in setting clear emission reduction plans. We found that 12 out of the 26 steel producers with targets did not provide an emission reduction plan; 14 provided at least one measure to achieve their target, and from those only eight had a comprehensive, detailed emission reduction plan that includes timelines, technologies and measures to be implemented to achieve their targets. While it is encouraging that the steel companies have started acting toward long-term deep decarbonisation, our findings suggest that there is a long way ahead and the action needs to be accelerated considerably.