Martin Pei, head of Swedish steel giant SSAB, said that many of the attempts to claim steel is green are nothing other than branding.
“There are so many green steel initiatives and many of them are only greenwashing. They are not doing anything, they are selling certificates,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
Pei called for transparency so that companies could not continue making the same product but brand it green.
The global metals industry is one of the largest emitters in the world and cutting carbon is notoriously difficult. According to an estimate from the World Steel Association, steel alone accounts for about 8 per cent of global carbon emissions.
To help counter this, SSAB plans to produce 1.5 million tonnes per year of “fossil-free steel” by 2026, using electricity to produce hydrogen by splitting water molecules. It would be a large chunk of the business’s current nine million tonnes.
However,...