In a statement, ArcelorMittal said that because many companies, including itself, are considering how to go about classifying low-emissions steels, it wanted to share its thinking on the matter. 

The company said that in its view, a classification system ought to include a dual scoring system made up of a life cycle assessment value for finished products and a decarbonization rating that categorizes low- and near-zero carbon emissions per ton of hot-rolled steel. 

Such a system must also include a clearly defined boundary from which carbon emissions are counted for the decarbonization rating system, the company said. Additionally, it “must be designed in such a way that incentivizes the decarbonization of all methods of steel production through technology shifts, rather than simply through increasing scrap rates using existing technology,” the company said. 

“Setting a standard to classify low-carbon-emissions steel during our industry’s transition to net zero is critical to our decarbonization journey. We have spent a lot of time thinking about how to do this in a fair way that incentivizes all steelmakers to reduce emissions and ultimately achieve net zero. At the heart of our concept is a system that ensures that all steelmakers, both primary and secondary, are incentivized to further improve their emissions, and progress towards near zero is recognized and rewarded,” said ArcelorMittal executive vice president Brad Davey, chairman of the company’s climate committee.

“We know that there are many organizations giving this question a lot of thought. We are in close discussion with several of these organizations and have welcomed the opportunity to share our expertise of steelmaking with them as they develop their recommendations. As this is such a critical topic for the industry, we decided to directly publish the key principles we believe should be at the core of any system to officially categorize lower and near-zero carbon steel.”

ArcelorMittal has more details here.