The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has announced that it has welcomed the global agreement concluded last weekend at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) climate conference, stating that the agreement treads the right path towards mitigating anthropogenic climate change and, if correctly implemented, it would be a milestone on the way to a more environmentally-friendly future. However, EUROFER also stated that the agreement lacks a comprehensive strategy as to how to achieve the intended objectives and lacks the level playing field that would protect Europe’s industry from carbon leakage.
According to EUROFER, third country competitors will continue to face far lower environmental burdens. Europe’s steel industry is amongst the cleanest and most advanced in the world. So long as no equal measures exist for industrial competitors globally, the EU’s most significant climate policy, the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), will have to be shaped in a way that guarantees, at least at the level of the 10 percent most efficient steel plants in Europe, that the system does not result in any costs.
“As European member states move to ratification of the Paris agreement, they must think about developing domestic and EU-level policies that implement their commitments to global climate protection, but that also guarantee jobs, growth and investment at home,” said EUROFER director general Axel Eggert.