Varying regional standards for low-emission steelmaking need to find common ground to enable the establishment of credible lead markets for steel, a German research institute states in a study on Chinese versus European standards.
Harmonised standards for low-carbon steel are an important basis for billion-euro investments in climate friendly steel production, says the Wuppertal Institute, a research body specialising in topics related to climate, environment and social sustainability.
Standards create demand by reducing uncertainty for investors, according to Chun Xia-Bauer, Lukas Hermwille and Anna Leipprand, the authors of the study, entitled “Green Steel, Shared Rules?”
Comparing the European Low Emission Steel Standard (LESS) and China’s “C2F Steel” standard, they find that the two standards are largely comparable from a technical perspective, Kallanish understands. Both support the transition to highly decarbonised primary steel and scrap-based steelmaking powered by renewable energy. Still, significant differences remain in their system boundaries, which is why full technical interoperability is unlikely in the near term, the authors write.
A realistic next step would be establishing mapping and conversion tools that help firms, buyers and policymakers understand how products classified under one standard would be interpreted under the other, they suggest.
Author: Christian Koehl
