During the opening of COP28 in Dubai, Jean-Marie Paugam, the Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), gave his endorsement to new steel standards principles. This initiative has been backed by 42 organizations and industry leaders. "There would be a follow-up to this in the COP29 event," Paugam stated.
According to a PDF on these standards, the new steel principles aim to refine emission measurement methods with the goal of significantly reducing emissions. The endorsing stakeholders and organizations have acknowledged that the iron and steel sector contributes approximately 8% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is imperative for this sector to reduce its emissions by 90% or more.
The endorsed principles are multifaceted: they encourage collaboration and constructive dialogue across developed and developing countries, governments, steel producers, and their suppliers; they propose that greenhouse gas emission measurement standards should build upon existing international standards; they suggest that these measurement standards should drive efforts to decarbonize the steel industry; finally, these standards should align with the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade agreement code of good practice.
Paugam announced these new steel standards principles at the launch of COP28. He also mentioned that an additional six companies and organizations have shown support for these new standards.
In a WTO news release, Clare Broadbent, Head of Sustainability at the World Steel Association commented on the issue. She said it was encouraging "to have this wide range of organizations willing to work together on harmonization Work in the steel sector could be a basis for extending those efforts to other materials."
The same release quoted Lee McDonough, Director General International of Net Zero with the Breakthrough Agenda. McDonough described these principles as "a fundamental building block to unlocking the global market for near-zero emission steel."
Several partners attended the launch event for these steel standard principles including UNIDO, IEA, the World Steel Association, and ResponsibleSteel. These organizations were instrumental in creating these principles. According to an outline of the launch event, other attendees discussed how these principles could shape the work in the steel industry over the next year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.