ArcelorMittal Sets 2030 Carbon-Reduction Target for Global Operations -- Update
July 29 2021 - 6:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Maitane Sardon
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has laid out a new plan to decarbonize
its business and set a new midterm emissions-reduction target for
its global operations.
On Thursday, the Luxembourg-based steel producer said it aims to
reduce its carbon intensity--a measure of the emissions companies
add to the atmosphere for every dollar of sales--by 25% by 2030
across its global operations. It also increased its
emissions-reduction target for Europe, where it said it intends to
cut its carbon intensity by 35% by 2030, from a previous target of
30%.
Steel is one of the sectors that is harder to decarbonize due to
its reliance on cheap fossil fuels for its processes and its
low-profit margins. It contributes about 7% of the total
carbon-dioxide emissions from the energy sector, according to the
International Energy Agency.
ArcelorMittal, which already has a goal to achieve net-zero
emissions by 2050, said meeting the new targets would require
capital investments of $10 billion. It said it would request
government funding to support the initial capital spend and the
higher operating costs of transitioning to low-carbon
technologies.
"These are ambitious targets and it will be a big challenge, but
there is a lot of positive engagement across the company to show
the world what it is capable of," said Chief Executive Aditya
Mittal in a call with journalists.
Mr. Mittal said the company plans to meet the targets mainly by
weaning off fossil fuels in blast furnaces and using more electric
arc furnaces, which produce steel from scrap metal and have lower
emissions.
He said ArcelorMittal is working on several projects to
accelerate the production of green steel, including transforming
its plant in Sestao, Spain, into a net-zero emissions plant by
2025. He said 1.6 million tons of carbon-neutral steel will be
manufactured at Sestao by using feedstock produced using hydrogen
and by switching to renewable electricity to power furnaces, mills
and finishing lines. As part of that project, ArcelorMittal plans
to build a unit that uses green hydrogen to strip oxygen from iron
ore to make direct-reduced iron. Direct-reduced iron can be
combined with scrap and melted to make steel in electric arc
furnaces.
"We are the world's largest producer of direct-reduced iron so
there is a lot of knowledge within the organization on how the
technology works," Mr. Mittal said.
ArcelorMittal also said it is looking to link its
decarbonization targets to the remuneration of executives and join
the Science-Based Targets initiative, a nonprofit that assesses
companies' plans for emissions reduction.
Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 29, 2021 06:31 ET (10:31 GMT)
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