Understanding what has caused the reduction of GHG emission intensity of the steel industry to stagnate

Abstract

The reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission intensity of the steel industry has stagnated from 1995 onwards. This represents a concern since GHG emissions are the main driver of anthropogenic climate change. This study aims to understand how the progress of the GHG emission intensity reduction in the steel industry has stagnated by discovering the drivers of the emission intensity between 1960 and 2015. The research method used is a system dynamics approach, designed to understand complex behavior and attain leverage points. The method has several stages. The conceptualization stage, where the drivers of the GHG intensity are uncovered through a literature review. These in turn are represented as a set of interactions in a qualitative SD model, completing the Formulation stage. Following is the Testing stage where the model is critically assessed. Lastly, the Implementation stage contrasts the formulated model to different hypotheses for the occurrence of the stagnating behavior found in literature. The results indicate the steel industry has reached a state where several factors are not allowing the GHG intensity to decrease further. These are namely the development stage of technology, the scrap availability constraint, the degree of government intervention, and the development level phase-out between countries.