Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of UK-based Liberty Steel Group, part of GFG Alliance, has commented on the Sixth Carbon Budget of the UK-based Committee on Climate Change.
“If we don’t tackle steel, we will fail to meet our carbon targets, and the Climate Change Committee is right to urge the government to mandate UK steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035,” he stated.
Liberty Steel’s Greensteel strategy aims to make the company a carbon neutral steelmaker by 2030 through greater use of recycling, renewable energy and breakthrough technologies such as hydrogen.
Sanjeev Gupta stated that, if the UK as a whole wants to meet the CCC’s aim, a co-ordinated policy framework for steel and energy-intensive industries is needed to drive rapid decarbonisation. He said that the companies which are fast movers should be encouraged through an appropriate carbon emissions policy to protect the competitiveness of the industry until a global carbon price is established.
He also added that the government support for green steel in supplying major construction projects can also help to spearhead new technologies in industrial regions, re-energising their economies.