Called the Global Steel Climate Council, the coalition said that as the U.S. and EU negotiate a new emissions standard for steel production, it will oppose standards that take into account production methods, rather than focusing on emissions generated.
 
“We have the technology to reduce carbon emissions in steel production by 70 percent today,” said Leon Topalian, chairman and chief executive of Nucor Corp., a founding member of the council. “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.”

In addition to Nucor, the coalition includes the Steel Manufacturers Association, Spanish long products maker CELSA Group, Steel Dynamics Inc., Commercial Metals Company and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

Together they argue that a “sliding scale” standard supported by blast furnace producers would allow higher emissions ceilings for extractive steels, penalizing EAF producers and permitting higher-emission steel to be erroneously labeled as “green.” Under such an arrangement, the coalition said, steels produced via more CO₂-intensive processes could be labeled as green as steels melted in an electric arc furnace. 

“We must prevent steel producers from classifying their products as green when the same products are available on the market with significantly lower carbon emissions,” said Francisco Cardona, head of public affairs for CELSA Group. 

In addition to promoting process-agnostic emissions standards, the council said it will push for standards that Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and that aligns with a science-based glide path to achieve the 1.5 degree of warming scenario by the year 2050.