ArcelorMittal prepares 2030 carbon reduction target

ArcelorMittal an announcement of its carbon reduction target to be achieved by 2030 to be published next year, the company tells Kallanish. The steelmaker is currently exploring three possible ways of significantly reducing carbon emissions in steelmaking but believes the support of policy makers will be essential during the transition ongoing to cleaner steel production.

In a recent article by ArcelorMittal executive Alan Knight, the company confirmed its support, for example, to a border adjustment between regions with a carbon price and those without. Knight is the head of corporate responsibility and sustainable development at ArcelorMittal.

“Steelmaking today contributes 7% of the world’s carbon emissions. So, in a world aligned with the objective of the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – an objective ArcelorMittal is committed to – we must change primary steelmaking to emit much less carbon,” Knight explained.

The company will reveal its target for 2030 next year, but it is already working on three main projects aimed at reducing drastically CO₂ emissions within steelmaking. The three projects include the use of hydrogen for iron ore reduction (tested in Hamburg), the use of waste carbon for iron ore reduction and the carbon capture and storage (both tested in Ghent).

“For these projects to be commercially viable in the near-team while avoiding ‘carbon leakage’, not only do we need policies which consider the environmental standards to which steel is made – rather than where it is made – but we also need access to affordable clean energy, public funding, infrastructures for cleaner energy and policies rewarding products for their reusability and recyclability,” Knight concluded.