Steel is a very important material for modern society

German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp is one of a number of companies to have announced targets for so-called ‘net zero’ emissions © Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty “Steel is a very important material for modern society. It has been made since a long time back from iron ore, using coal,” says Martin Pei, chief technical officer at SSAB, a Swedish company at the forefront of these efforts. “If we really want to contribute to realising the climate goals set in the Paris agreement, then there’s a quite widespread consensus that only doing further efficiency improvements in the blast furnace will not be enough. Breakthrough technologies are needed urgently.” After the mass deployment of renewable energy over the past decade, as well as recent pledges by many of the world’s automakers to switch to electric motors, heavy industries such as steel, cement and petrochemicals that require extreme heat are one of the next frontiers in the decarbonisation of the economy. To meet global climate and energy goals, steel industry emissions must fall by at least half by the middle of the century, according to the International Energy Agency, with declines to zero pursued thereafter. Some of the world’s biggest steelmakers, including ArcelorMittal, Thyssenkrupp and China’s Baowu Group, are at various stages of turning laboratory concepts into an industrial reality. A number have even announced targets for so-called “net zero” emissions.