Greener Steel Production Is the First Step. Next Comes Scaling It Up
Trillions, not billions, of dollars will be needed to decarbonize the global steel industry.
Sparks fly at a steelworks in Duisburg, Germany.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesLast week saw two major milestones in the global effort to make steel production less damaging to the climate. Boston Metal raised $262 million of venture funding for its electricity-based steel- and metal-making technology, while Sweden’s H2 Green Steel assembled €1.5 billion in equity to build its first plant that will use hydrogen to create steel.
Decarbonizing steel will be difficult and costly, and if done at meaningful scale will remake one of the world’s biggest industries. Steelmaking is responsible for about 8% of energy sector emissions, and today, producing a ton of steel results in nearly two tons of CO2 emissions.