Nucor Corporation announced this week Net-Zero science-based greenhouse gas (GHG) targets for 2050 and established a new interim target for 2030. Nucor said these GHG intensity targets are defined by the Global Steel Climate Council's (GSCC) “Steel Climate Standard,” an “ambitious standard” that aligns with the Paris Climate Agreement's emission reduction goals for the steel sector by 2050, and with the International Energy Agency's “Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy System” glidepath.
Nucor said its net-zero 2050 and interim 2030 targets include scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions from the production of hot rolled steel as defined by the GSCC, making Nucor the first diversified steelmaker in the US to set GHG reduction targets encompassing all three scopes, the company said. These new targets are more ambitious than Nucor's previous target of a 35 percent reduction in steel mill scope 1 and scope 2 GHG intensity by 2030, using 2015 as a baseline, that was announced in 2021.
"We are the North American leader in sustainable steelmaking, and these targets further highlight our leadership role in developing clean solutions for the entire steel industry, as well as empowering our customers to meet their business and environmental goals successfully," said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nucor. "In recent years, we have made purposeful investments to increase the availability of carbon-free electricity, and to support other emerging technologies that will help lead the way to a clean industrial future."
Already, the company's circular production process uses an average of nearly 80 percent recycled scrap and has one third the greenhouse gas emissions intensity as compared to the average traditional extractive steelmaking process using a blast furnace, the company said.
Nucor said it will achieve its goals by increasing the use of clean electricity, carbon capture and sequestration and near zero GHG iron making. Nucor will also utilize technologies to reduce its consumption of injection and charge carbon and will reduce the use of natural gas in its production processes.
"We believe that transparency in reporting emissions and routinely updating emissions reduction plans are each important to successfully address climate change. At Nucor, we will continue to share our plans and progress and have our reporting verified by third parties," said Greg Murphy, Nucor's Executive Vice President of Business Services, Sustainability and General Counsel. "These targets and the details of our plans to achieve them will provide our customers, investors and policymakers with a clear roadmap of where Nucor is going and how we plan to get there."