EU Steel Industry Warns Brussels on Climate Plan

Europe’s steelmakers warned the European Commission on Tuesday that production and jobs would move abroad to less environmentally demanding locations if Brussels did not amend radical plans to fight climate change.

Philippe Varin, president of the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer), said proposals to curb greenhouse gas emissions due out on Wednesday would put his industry at a big competitive disadvantage compared to Chinese, Russian and US rivals.
“We have very strong concerns that if the proposal is not properly drafted, it could have a very damaging impact on our industry,” he told reporters on a teleconference.

“If we were to relocate our industries outside Europe, we would then have to transport steel to Europe, adding emissions. We would have taken industry outside Europe and we would be emitting more (carbon dioxide) than before,” he said.

Varin, chief executive of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, owned by India’s Tata Steel, was travelling to Brussels for a last-ditch effort to lobby European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas before Wednesday’s decisive meeting of the EU executive.

He said the Commission should promise free permits to emit CO2, the main gas blamed for global warming, until such time as an international agreement was in place to either curb global emissions or cover all major steel-producing nations.

Planet Ark