Bharat’s steel industry needs significant capital investment to achieve zero emissions

Existing steel and cement plants will require $627 billion of additional funds

According to non-profit think tank CEEW (Council on Energy, Environment and Water), India’s existing steel and cement plants will need INR 47 trillion ($627 billion) in additional capital investment to meet zero-emissions targets. Pv magazine India informs about it.

In addition, these two sectors will also need 1 trillion rupees every year as additional operational expenditure for these purposes.

«Decarbonising the country’s steel and cement industries will not only help the industries achieve their climate ambitions, but also make them market competitive and future-ready in an increasingly sustainable world,» says CEEW’s Executive Director Arunabha Ghosh.

The analysis, funded by BP India and carried out by CEEW, also found that reducing carbon emissions from steel production by 8-25% and cement production by 32% is possible without increasing prices. This can be done by implementing effective technologies, in particular, waste heat recovery and energy-saving measures.

Analysts estimate that the Indian steel industry will account for 297 million tons of CO₂ emissions related to steelmaking in 2021-2022.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the decarbonization of the steel industry of Bharat (India) will take more time, than planned, and the use of green hydrogen in the production of steel as the main energy resource will be possible only until 2050. This is stated in a research report by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and JMK Research. The emissions intensity of the industry is 2.55 t CO₂ per tonne of steel produced, compared to the global average of 1.85 t CO₂ per tonne.