Coal-based steel plants make up more than half of all global steel projects planned this year, putting the world at a “critical juncture” in its decarbonization quest, according to an annual survey by Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit research group.
The other portion is made up largely of electricity-powered plants with fewer greenhouse gas emissions, but the vast majority of them — 86 percent — have not yet started construction, according to the survey.
New “emissions-intensive, coal-based blast furnace construction threatens to further entrench the industry in fossil fuels,” the Global Energy Monitor said in the survey, adding that “no further investments should be made in coal-based technologies if a sustainable steelmaking industry is to be realized.”
The survey studied 1,163 individual plants located in 89 different countries.
