Towards effective carbon accounting for the global steel industry within the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism

Towards effective carbon accounting for the global steel industry within the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Towards effective carbon accounting for the global steel industry within the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism Tom Terlouw, Carina Harpprecht, Christian Bauer This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8099953/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The steel industry accounts for approximately 9% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making it a key sector for decarbonization. In this study, we quantify (i) current and prospective location-specific GHG emissions from crude steel production facilities worldwide and (ii) the effectiveness of the European carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) using a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. Based on our LCA approach, GHG emissions of global crude steel production are around 4.0 GtCO 2 -eq. year -1 , highly concentrated in Asia. To support decarbonization of the European industry and create a level playing field, effective carbon accounting frameworks are important. The current CBAM accounts for roughly 68% of the life cycle-based GHG emissions associated with steel imported to the European Union, leaving significant emissions (19 MtCO 2 -eq. year -1 ) unaccounted for. Depending on the future 2 ◦ C scenario in 2040, global steel production-related GHG emissions could be reduced by up to 63%, i.e., to 1.5–3.7 GtCO 2 -eq. year -1 . However, this may require substantial amounts of hydrogen (up to 96 MtH 2 year -1 ) and/or CO 2 storage volumes (up to 1.06 GtCO 2 year -1 ). To effectively decarbonize the steel industry, (i) policy measures are needed that build on facility-specific LCA results, and those (ii) must be supported by consistent (carbon) accounting frameworks with broad emissions coverage to support the global deployment of low-carbon steel production technologies. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy supply and demand Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate-change mitigation Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate-change policy Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate-change impacts Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SITowardseffectivecarbonaccountingfortheglobalsteelindustrywithintheEUcarbonborderadjustmentmechanism.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8099953","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":545184627,"identity":"8d60e7a3-9c19-4273-a660-6d4555e05b38","order_by":0,"name":"Tom 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