Monitoring steel
The worldwide steel industry is finally about to be monitored over its emissions, according to the FT. Within 2 years, the International Iron ans Steel Institute (IISI) expects to have a clear picture of which plants around the world are making good progress with limiting their emissions. With that information, they hope that the right technologies and methods for reducing CO2 could be used and shared among those that have been less effective. This list of plants and their emissions will not be available publicly as not to dissuade plants worldwide from disclosing the information.
The industry is responsible for 4% of world emissions.
“As well as being used within the industry as a guide to policy, the information gained from monitoring the plants could form the basis for a new set of policy initiatives by governments. It could influence whatever regime is adopted for tackling greenhouse emissions after 2012 when the Kyoto environmental treaty runs out.
Sectoral policy ideas such as this could apply to companies not just in the steel sector but in other industries that produce a lot of carbon dioxide – including electricity generation, cement, chemicals and aluminium. One idea is that businesses active in such areas could, in a post-2012 governmental regime, be awarded carbon dioxide “permits” by governments on the basis of how proficient they are at cutting greenhouse emissions per unit of economic output.
Those high up the performance “league tables” would be charged low sums for their permits, with those near the bottom subject to higher fees.
In this way, companies would be given an incentive to improve their environmental performance, while such systems could form a fairer way of handing out carbon dioxide permits than other ideas such as organising auctions or awarding them on a purely national basis.
Crucially, initiatives along the lines of the steel industry plan could, at least in theory, also involve companies in emerging economies whose governments feel they are not ready to sign up to current protocols such as the Kyoto treaty, yet whose businesses are large emitters of carbon dioxide.
In this context, the involvement of China – the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gas – is considered crucial. In a coup for the IISI, the institute has gained the approval for its monitoring scheme of the powerful China Iron and Steel Association – which represents three-quarters of the Chinese steel industry, itself responsible for one-third of the world’s steel output.
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Environmental groups have praised the steel industry project – which has gone further than similar schemes organised by other large global industries such as cement.”