The green steel transition in South Africa: insights from decarbonization workshop

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Action and next steps

The Steel Decarbonization Workshop in South Africa was based on the key principles of the LeadIT Industry Transition Roadmap Planner  – a tool developed to support decision-makers in the public and private sectors in designing, developing, and implementing decarbonization roadmaps for industry sectors. Participants highlighted that a national decarbonization roadmap for South Africa’s steel sector is a critical step in the transition to a low-carbon iron and steel value chain, and that the transition should create new job opportunities in renewable energy, clean technology manufacturing, and related sectors.  

Lufuno Maliaga, Analyst at the South African Iron and Steel Institute (SAISI), a non-governmental organization serving the interests of the steelmaking industry in South Africa, said, “The phase of transition needs to be carefully managed through policy intervention, in particular government creating an environment for business to transition swiftly to manage the process in a manner that is overall positive socio-economically. A South Africa Roadmap will be critical for this.” 

The results of the Steel Decarbonization Workshop will be taken forward by the South African government, and by the OECD, which is organizing a series of stakeholder events in 2023 and 2024. The events aim to identify technologies, projects, and case studies consistent with net-zero pathways, to validate decarbonization business cases, and discuss market and finance solutions that could improve the viability of business cases. 

Joseph Cordonnier, Clean Energy Finance and Investment Policy Analyst at the OECD, said that the workshop offered foundational perspectives for future OECD workshops focused on South Africa’s steel industry: “My main takeaway from the workshop is a better understanding of the domestic context to begin a process of chartering a sustainable way forward for the steel sector value chain in South Africa. This includes in particular the absence of a domestic market for green steel products as most customers’ purchasing decisions are driven by costs, the low reliability of the power supply and power grid, and the up-skilling requirements.”  

Learn more about key takeaways from the Steel Decarbonization Workshop in LeadIT Steel decarbonization workshop brief.

A full report from the workshop will be published by Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies 

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