SPPA Prof. Alexandra Mallett have been working with Prosanto Pal from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, India on decarbonizing and making the production of steel more sustainable in India. This is part of an initiative (funded by the UK government), Climate Compatible Growth (CCG). The Policy Brief, Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) in the iron and steel industry in India: rethinking patterns of innovation was recently published on the CCG website.
Key Messages
• India possesses the potential to become a global sustainable steel production leader, but present
efforts are not enough to achieve Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) within the steel sector.
• Transition of the Indian iron and steel sector must be looked at through the lenses of industrialization, energy security, and self-reliance alongside sustainability.
• Decarbonizing industry actions must tackle the making of primary crude steel given limited scrap availability and the projected demand for steel in India.
• Indian firms are pursuing various innovation pathways in primary steelmaking processes but slowly. Moreover, for novel technologies there is too much ‘going it alone’ – firms are generally working in isolation or separately pursuing partnerships with technology suppliers from the west.
• The promotion of international collaboration and technology diffusion, such as through setting up pilot and demonstration projects to advance sustainable pathways for the sector, is required.