Insight Brief: Steel Emissions
Steel is central to infrastructure and technologies across myriad facets of everyday life. But it is also a heavily emitting industry, thanks to a reliance on coal-fired processes that have dominated production historically.
Leveraging steel data from coalition sector lead TransitionZero — plus complementary insights from fellow coalition members Global Energy Monitor and WattTime — this new insight brief takes a closer look at steel emissions trends and decarbonization opportunities at global, country, production method, and individual facility levels.
You can download the free, full PDF here.
Key insights
Inside the steel emissions insight brief, you’ll find:
—Global emissions since 2015 (the start of the Climate TRACE data coverage), plus monthly facility-level insights from starting January 2021 through Q1 2024.
—Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions factors for electric arc furnace (EAF), direct reduced iron (DRI-EAF), and blast furnace / basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steel production pathways.
—Sector emissions trends for the Top 10 steel-producing countries globally, including steel “fleet” facility deep dives for select countries.
—Facility-level insights for nearly 900 steel plants around the world, including emissions factors, capacity factors, and estimated production and emissions.
—Decarbonization pathways as EAF and DRI-EAF gain expected market share vs. BF-BOF in the years ahead, including the role of marginal electricity emissions rates for understanding overall impacts.
