A Roadmap to Carbon Neutral Steel

Arcelor Mittal have launched their XCarb® programme ‘towards neutral steel’, as in carbon neutral steel. Steel is widely used the production of coins. In Europe, for example, the one, two and five cent coins are made of steel.

In 2020, steel production accounted for 8% of global CO2 emissions. While power generation, agriculture and transport were by far the largest sources of CO2 emissions, steel, building and cement were all significant sources.

Steel production has been growing steadily from about 200 million tons in 1950 to 2,000 million tons in 2021. The stock of iron and steel stock in use per capita has increased from three tons per person in 2000 to 4.3 in 2020.

Arcelor Mittal has the goal of being net zero by 2050. By 2030 it wants to reduce its CO2e emission intensity from scope 1 and 2 sources by 25%, and in Europe the target is 35%. It has a vision of steel being an enabler of a low-carbon circular economy.