How to Wedge-a-War on CO2 in the Steel Industry

Firstly-before getting involved:

It is best to arm ones-self with some sound statistics of main CO2 producers. For steel, CO2 goes hand-in-hand with steel production. These figures together with the CO2 correction factor are extensively given and well presented by country, region, "continents or uniform blockes", by company and company rank Top to bottom, tables and graphs notably by the International Iron & Steel Institute (IISI), based in London.

Secondly: support strongly, the most advanced practices, often these are most rapidly innovated, if not invented in the advance countries of the European Union. Flatering improvements in energy efficiency and CO2 reduction have been reported compared to other industrial sectors. Globally such results are likely to be countered by huge production increases and relatively poor emissions control in developing countries cf. below. However the above graph does show that important progress can be made in the "raw materials" phase of car making, the latter being the main outlet for steel.

NB. The energy intensity for all common ironmaking and steelmaking opperations is given clearly and in detail in the the paper Energy Use and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Steel Sector (April 2001) [Pdf] in Key Developing Countries by Lynn Price, Dian Phylipsen, Ernst Worrell, of the Energy Analysis Dept.,Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California. Surprisingly for countries with enormous emission problems (China and India) this paper shows a relatively low C02 emissions level due to steelmaking compared to overall CO2 emissions. Nevertheless both countries have coal based energy economies and therefore carbon intensive. Carbon intensity trends are closely related to energy intensity trends but are also dependent upon the fuel mix used by the iron and steel industry in each country. Figure 20, in Energy Use and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Steel Sector (April 2001) [Pdf] shows that South Africa, India and China have the highest carbon intensities from iron and steel production, while Brazil and Mexico have relatively low carbon intensities.