Bengaluru, India – India’s plans to double Steel production At the end of the decade, it could endanger its national climatic objectives and a key global objective to reduce hot planet gas emissions in the steel industry, according to a report published on Tuesday.
The Global Energy Monitor report, an organization that tracks energy projects worldwide, said efforts to decarbonize steel creation are gaining traction worldwide. However, in India, which is the second largest steel producing nation in the world, an overwhelming dependence on coal -based technologies presents a great challenge.
“India is now the stimulus of the global steel decarbonization,” said Astrid Grigsby-Schulte, project manager of the Global Iron and Steel Tracker of GEM and report co-author. “If the country does not increase its plans for the production of green steel, the entire sector will lose an important milestone. Thus goes India, so it goes in the world.”
Currently, up to 12% of the greenhouse gas emissions of India, which enter the atmosphere and heat the planet, come from steel manufacturing. That number could double in five years if steel occurs in line with government plans, according to the report.
At the same time, India wants to produce 500 gigawatts of clean energy, sufficient to feed almost 300 million Indian homes, at the end of this decade. The southern nation of Asia recently crossed the milestone of installing 100 gigawatts of solar energymost of which were installed in the last 10 years.
By 2070, India also aims to go to zero net, that is, it will eliminate all the contamination of carbon dioxide that emits or cancel it using other methods, such as planting trees that absorb carbon.
Steel production is one of the most carbon pollutant industries, responsible for almost 9% of world greenhouse gases emissions. The International Energy Agency has established an objective for 37% of the global steel manufacturing capacity to trust low -emission electric arc furnaces by 2030. Current GEM projections show that the world reaches only 36%, a deficit largely due to the heavy coal pipe of India.
India plans to expand its steel production capacity from 200 million to more than 330 million tons per year by 2030. According to the new data, more than 40% of the global capacity in development, approximately 352 million tons per year, is located in India, with more than half of that using coal -based capacity.
“India is the only important steel producer nation that has so much coal capacity in the pipe,” said Henna Khadeja, Gem research analyst who also worked in the report.
The Indian steel sector releases approximately 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide per steel ton, approximately 25% more than the global average. PorcelainThe world’s largest steel manufacturer has managed to maintain its lowest emissions by ton by producing more waste -based steel and removing older coal -based plants.
The strong dependence of the Indian of coal for the creation of steel is driven by a combination of factors: low -cost domestic coal, a relatively young fleet of underpants that still have between 20 and 25 years of operational life, and a lack of natural gas gas and steel scrap. The country’s scrap recycling ecosystem remains informal, and high quality iron mineral is scarce.
“There is a potential for India to change course,” Khadeja of Gem said. “Much of the planned capacity is still on paper. Only 8% have actually broken the land. This means that there is still a window to change towards low -emission technologies.”
The consequences of producing carbon pollutant steel can go beyond climatic objectives. While India’s steel exports are only a small proportion of its general production, they could suffer since the main markets such as the European Union begin to enforce carbon border taxes next year.
“India may be better to tolerate a short -term pain of technological improvement to make its steel cleaner to obtain long -term competitiveness gains,” said Easwaran Nareassimhan, of the group of experts based in New Delhi, sustainable futures collaborative.
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