Climate and Policy

Columbia Business School Faculty Provide Insights into Vital Topics that Can Transform Outcomes for our Planet

During a recent workshop at Columbia Business School, experts addressed the challenge of soaring emissions, highlighting the urgent need for a comprehensive transformation across the industry.

And the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act is surprisingly well-designed to deal with the fallout.

For many years, steelmaking has followed a consistent, two-step process: First, iron ore is mined and mixed with coal, as well as other substances, to make molten iron. This process most often happens using highly polluting blast furnaces. Some 90% of steel-related emissions come from this first iron-producing step.

“I think we need a green steel definition,” noted Marie Jaroni, senior vice president of decarbonization and ESG at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp. “Everyone is doing their own thing. It would help our clients and our customers to have one green steel definition, and I think that’s very crucial for all of us.”

Steel is an infamously hard-to-abate sector. For one thing, steel production assets have long lifespans before they are due for expensive upgrades. For another, the sector’s energy requirements are massive and will likely tax emerging clean energy systems. Some of these roadblocks can be circumvented — at least for the time being — with an embrace of transitional, “messy middle” technologies and processes, which can represent decarbonization potentials of between 10% and 50% (though they still carry significant green price premiums).

Host Professor Ray Horton speaks with Professor Geoffrey Heal, an economist and conservationist whose teaching and research on climate change have left an indelible mark on the School.