[Ferro-Alloys.com] 

  On December 17, Rio Tinto, Baowu and Tsinghua University jointly held a seminar on "China's low-carbon steel development goals and paths" in Beijing. The seminar invited experts and scholars from inside and outside the steel industry to focus on the green development of the iron and steel industry, and put forward suggestions on future low-carbon development of the steel industry.

  Zhu Kai, deputy director of the International Cooperation Bureau of SASAC of the State Council; Xu Wenli, director of the iron and steel division of the raw materials industry department of the Ministry of industry and information technology; He Jiankun, director of the academic committee of the Institute of climate change and sustainable development of Tsinghua University and Deputy director of the national climate change expert committee; Sun Xiao, director of the Multilateral Cooperation Department of the China International Chamber of Commerce; Huang Dao, Deputy Secretary General of the China Iron and Steel Association; Liu Wenqiang, vice president of CISDI Research Institute; Jiang Xiaodong, vice president of Metallurgical Industry Planning Institute and member of the Party committee; Ke Shanxin, Minister of energy and environmental protection of China Baowu group, and experts from the industry attended the seminar. In addition, Ni Ximan, CEO of corporate relations of Rio Tinto Group, and heads of relevant departments of Rio Tinto attended the seminar online. Ren binyan, President of Rio Tinto in China, presided the meeting.

  In his speech, Xu Wenli said that the iron and steel industry is the basic industry of national economy, an important support for China's manufacturing power, and a key area of green and low-carbon. Among the heavy industry, the task of iron and steel energy-saving and emission-reduction plays an important role in environmental protection. General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward requirements for carbon emission reduction and carbon neutralization. Mr. Xu stressed that the industrial chain of iron and steel is very long, and how to form a joint force between the upstream and downstream is very important. In addition, the upstream and downstream industries should gain a reasonable profit to achieve win-win results.

  Huang Dao expressed that China's iron and steel industry has made remarkable progress in energy-saving and emission-reduction, but we still need to reflect on what production methods can cause great damage to nature or environment in the process of development and the acquisition of mining resources and what production and manufacturing processes that can be used to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases. In terms of this, he put forward with two suggestions: one is through innovation driven, global cooperation to strive for breakthroughs in low-carbon metallurgical technology. The other is through win-win cooperation to strengthen the synergy effect of energy efficiency improvement of existing industrial chain.

  Ni Ximan said that 76% of the electricity consumed by Rio Tinto's management and operation comes from renewable energy. Rio Tinto aims to achieve net zero emission by 2050 and reduce its emission intensity by 30% and absolute emission by 15% by 2030. China has made an important contribution to the successful adoption of “Paris Agreement”, and has also made positive efforts to implement the Agreement. We are very excited to see that China will once again play a leading role in the world. China has taken the initiative to achieve the ambitious goal of carbon dioxide emission peak in 2030 and striven to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. These ambitious goals will bring about breakthrough changes in the global economy and society. " She said that Rio Tinto promised to invest US $10 million in Baowu in the next two years to establish a Research and Development Center for low-carbon raw materials preparation, and also support Baowu's carbon dioxide utilization and conversion work in the low-carbon metallurgy innovation center.

  Ke Shanliang presented that China’s Baowu has become an iron and steel enterprise with a global crude steel output of more than 100 million tons by absorbing and integrating Masteel, Kungang and TISCO. As the central enterprise and the world's largest steel enterprise, green and low carbon is the common goal of global steel transformation and development. China’s Baowu attaches great importance to the development of green and low-carbon cycle, strives to improve the utilization efficiency of energy and resources, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, actively undertakes enterprises’ social responsibility, and supports the country to fulfill the emission reduction obligations of Paris Agreement. The overall idea of China’s Baowu low carbon metallurgy is to continuously improve and innovate the existing steel and technical process, explore and master the core technology of green and low-carbon approach, and create the leading edge of steel technology in the future. By 2025, China’s Baowu has basically obtained technological capacity to reduce emission by 30% per ton. China’s Baowu has continued to support the research on the application basis of low-carbon metallurgy. It has set up a low-carbon metallurgy innovation fund, providing 35 million RMB annually to support the research of low-carbon metallurgical technology innovation projects.

  He Jiankun pointed out that in order to achieve carbon peak by 2030, we should vigorously improve the energy structure. Due to the fact that the total demand of energy will increase slowly, we should use the change of energy structure, vigorously develop new and renewable energy. We use the newly increased supply of new energy and renewable energy to meet the new demand of total energy, if the main body of fossil energy will not grow anymore, then the peak of carbon dioxide emission can be achieved. Energy system carbon dioxide emission reduction is one of our main low carbon development measures. In addition, in the power system, we can also develop carbon dioxide land storage technology. Obviously, these difficult emission reduction departments also need to develop revolutionary technologies to reduce carbon emissions. He also figured out that both European Union and the United States are planning to impose a carbon border regulation tax on products exported to them from developing countries. This is also a constraint for developing countries.

  Jiang Xiaodong said that for China, energy emissions ranks the first in the world and the volume is also very large, accounting for more than one third. Therefore, in this context, it is more difficult for plants to decompose carbon emission reduction indicators to each place or industry. The she gave following suggestions: firstly, promote green distribution; secondly, save energy and improve energy efficiency; thirdly, optimize energy use and process structure; fourthly, build circular economy industrial chain; fifthly, apply breakthrough low-carbon technology. She stressed that these five suggestions are based on system construction and the guarantee of policy system. Finally, Jiang Xiaodong put forward several suggestions on how to deal with climate change in iron and steel industry: firstly, it is suggested to carry out the top-level design of iron and steel industry to deal with climate change and clarify strategic objectives and specific action plans; secondly, strengthen the construction of fundamental capacity and digital and intelligent management and control; thirdly, build a platform to jointly establish the green low-carbon industry value chain with upstream and downstream and related industries; fourthly, it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation in the field of climate change in iron and steel industry.

  Finally, many experts and scholars from inside and outside the industry were invited to discuss the innovation and practice of low carbon development in iron and steel industry.

• [责任编辑：Catherine Ren]