The European steel industry is committed to contributing responsibly to the achievement of the EU’s long-term climate objectives in line with the ambition of the Paris Agreement. With the enabling conditions in place, notably a supportive regulatory framework and wide access to competitive climate-neutral energy sources, the European steel industry will be empowered to developing, upscaling and rolling-out new technologies some of which have been already identified by our companies. This could reduce our sector’s emissions by 2050 by at least 80 to 95% compared to 1990 levels, thus making a major contribution to the EU’s climate neutrality.

The Climate Law offers the opportunity for a thorough reflection on EU climate policy and more broadly on the EU’s role in the global arena. The pursued “leading by example” strategy in combination with the unilateral climate neutrality objective gives the EU even greater responsibility since other countries will follow the EU’s leadership only if this shows to be successful in combining climate change mitigation with economic and industrial development as well as social acceptance. Hence, the scalability and reproducibility of the EU transition in third countries is an essential element for the continues success of EU climate leadership.