Hello everyone, great to have your company on Kalkine TV. I'm Rachael and you’re watching
Buzzing Trends. Fristly, The latest report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental
Panel on climate change paints a grim picture of the future - suggesting that the condition
of global warming is worsening. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has declared
the report as a ‘code red’ for humanity - while indicating that soon, the situation may spiral
out of control. The report finds that for the current levels of carbon emissions – human
activities are solely responsible. This has contributed to raising the global temperature by
one degree celcius since the 19th century. This increase in earth’s temperature represents the
highest increase of the last 100,000 years of the planet’s existence. It is to be noted
that the contribution of natural hazards like volcanoes and wildfires has been insignificant
to this meteoric rise in the earth’s temperature. Moving
on to the role of the Paris Agreement in the fight against climate change.- The Paris Agreement is an
international treaty that was adopted in 2015 by 196 countries to control and reduce emission
levels. The goal of the climate accord is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably
to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. Australia, New Zealand, US, India,
and several EU nations are some of the treaty’s signatories working towards the goal of reducing
global emission levels. The governments from these countries have identified industries like mining,
petroleum, power, iron, steel, and heavy industries which are the biggest contributors to
global emissions with. So let’s look at how the steel industry is going to survive the whips of
climate change. The International Energy Agency in its report called the Iron and
Steel Technology Roadmap, has laid down the impacts and trade-off of technological
choices and policy changes required by the steel industry to meet the goals of
the Paris Agreement. The steel industry is now facing a monumental challenge while striving to
deploy new technologies and methods to reduce emissions. As the steel manufacturing industry
is emission-intensive, and there is no immediate solution to reduce its carbon levels drastically –
it’s imperative for the industry to reinvent itself. Bringing in changes in its production
and operational activities over time - for transition into a low-carbon impact industry.
Well, its time for a very short break now, but stay tuned with me on Kalkine TV as I’ll be back
with the crucial details pertaining to the steel industry that may
take some steps to the emissions on a per tonne basis.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Welcome back, Rachael this side. You are watching Buzzing Trends
live on Kalkine TV. Before the break we looked at how the United Nations climate
change report may impact the steel industry. The next step that the steel industry may
take is to reduce emissions on a per tonne basis. According to data available with the
World Steel Association, for every tonne of steel produced in 2020, 1.85 tonnes of carbon dioxide
were released into the environment. With the total steel production being 1.86
billion tonnes, it resulted in release of 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Out of all carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activities, the steel industry’s
contribution is nearly 7-9 perfect. As the World Steel Association controls about 85 percent of
the global steel production. Any policy shift introduced by the association would
impact majority of the industry - and could help in reducing the emission levels by up to
20 percent. We may eventually see the steel industry producing steel from scrap. With
the use of each tonne of scrap by a steel plant, there is major reduction in consumption levels of
around 1.4 tonnes of iron ore, 740 kilograms of coal and 120 kilograms of limestone.
Also, recycling of one tonne of scrap used for steel production curtails emissions by
1.5 tonnes. According to data from the World Steel Association, almost 85 percent of
scrap steel finds its way to steel plants for recycling. A higher recycling rate leaves
very small room for further improvement. The industry needs to set a system through which
every steel product at the end of its service life finds its way to the furnace for recycling.
So how can the steel industry directly limit
carbon emissions by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Well
steel is produced in a blast furnace, which uses fossil fuels as reducing agents.
The blast furnace has come a long way in design efficiency and is continuously evolving. The
usage of fossil fuels as a reducing agent leads to the emission of carbon dioxide. For this reason,
the steel industry must transform its reduction process. As
the industry is experimenting with some breakthrough technologies.
Instead of using fossil fuels as the source of carbon, the industry could use
carbon sequestration for the supply of carbon. Also, instead of using carbon, the possibility
of using hydrogen as a reducing agent could lead to reduction in emissions.
With that, It’s time to wrap up today’s show. I hope you found today’s show informative - stay
tuned for more news and updates on Kalkine TV Live. This is Rachael signing off.