Amid industry calls for greater consistency and clarity across carbon standards at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, ResponsibleSteel announces partnerships with two standards – Europe’s Low Emission Steel Standard (LESS) and China’s Low-carbon Emission Steel Standard (C2F Steel) – to advance global comparability and trade in low-emission and near-zero steel, covering some 60%1 of the world’s steel production.
- ResponsibleSteel’s landmark agreements with Chinese and European steel standards bodies extend a common approach to GHG measurement and classification to cover over half of global steel production.
- These partnerships connect major producers, consumers, and innovators across the global steel value chain under interoperable definitions of low-emission steel, accelerating the sector’s path towards deep decarbonisation.
- By aligning some of the world’s largest steel industries, the agreements pave the way for greater investment, green procurement, technology exchange, and international collaboration in sustainable steelmaking.
The two agreements are agreed between ResponsibleSteel and the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), and between ResponsibleSteel and the Brussels-based Low Emission Steel Standard organisation (LESS aisbl). Together, membership of the three organisations represents around 60% of the world’s steel production.
With steel one of the most significant industrial contributors to climate change, accounting for around 7-9% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the agreements strengthen efforts to facilitate trade and investment in decarbonised steel while ensuring consistency and credibility in sustainability standards worldwide.
Achieving meaningful progress in decarbonisation requires collaboration across borders and standards. Crucially, today’s agreements send a strong signal to governments globally of the far-reaching consensus around the ‘scrap-variable’ approach to low-emission steel classification, which acknowledges that the availability of recyclable steel will be limited for a considerable time to come and is designed to drive decarbonisation across all technologies.
Such an approach, already recognised by the G7 and incorporated into international standards, is a practical, science-based solution that supports the global transition to low-emission steel without compromising integrity. It:
- Prevents fruitless competition for a limited scrap supply.
- Incentivises decarbonisation across all steel production routes.
- Promotes technology-neutral solutions in line with international trade rules and helps to reduce creating unnecessary barriers to trade.
ResponsibleSteel’s GHG accounting methodology and classification system are part of its broad ESG spectrum ‘International Production Standard’, developed over several years in a transparent multistakeholder process through input from over 70 business and civil society organisations and 180 individuals – including steelmakers with blast furnace (BF) and electric arc furnace operations.
Today, 90 ResponsibleSteel certificates have been achieved around the world, and the organisation remains the only multistakeholder standard for broad-spectrum steel sustainability.
“ResponsibleSteel is building a global framework to enable comparability to underpin a global market in low-emission steel. A majority of the world’s steel production capacity now has the potential to use mechanisms for equivalency to define their low-emission and near-zero emission steel. These agreements pave the way to the first real examples of interoperability between standards – a breakthrough development which will provide clarity for steel producers, buyers, investors and policymakers.” -Annie Heaton, CEO of ResponsibleSteel
At the heart of the agreements is ResponsibleSteel’s ‘Framework for Credible Interoperability,’ which sets out principles to enable carbon metrics to be translated between standards to support credible GHG claims. Using this framework, ResponsibleSteel will work with the two organisations to develop conversion tools to enable stakeholders to claim equivalency of their decarbonisation progress under different schemes.
“Collaboration is essential for harmonising greenhouse-gas-emission standards and accelerating the decarbonisation of the steel industry. This agreement represents a landmark step toward that goal. ClSA’s decision to cooperate with ResponsibleSteel is attributed to our mutual adherence to steel-standard principles, the proven results both organisations have achieved in this field, and our shared commitment to credible, science-based solutions. We are looking forward to working closely with ResponsibleSteel to advance the objectives of this agreement.” – Jiang Wei, Chair, China Iron and Steel Association (CISA)
“LESS is proud to partner with ResponsibleSteel on this groundbreaking initiative. Our shared commitment to credible, science-based solutions will bring much-needed clarity to the comparison of GHG emissions and transparency about decarbonisation progress in steel production. This agreement is a critical step toward building global markets for low-emission steel and accelerating the industry’s transition to net zero.” – Carmen Ostwald, Secretary General, LESS aisbl
This work also exemplifies the Steel Standards Principles (SSPs), launched at COP28 to foster alignment among greenhouse gas standards. Since then, ResponsibleSteel has worked closely with over 60 SSP signatories, playing a leading role in advancing interoperability.
“As two dominant steel-producing regions, China and Europe have a vital role to play in driving steel industry decarbonisation. ResponsibleSteel is proud to play its part as the global, multistakeholder broker using its trusted standard to help them achieve genuine decarbonisation of their steel industries.” – Gerry Tidd, Chair, ResponsibleSteel Board of Directors
A globally interoperable system is essential to enable markets for low-emission steel to thrive. Both agreements pave the way to the creation of credible interoperability mechanisms between the greenhouse gas metrics of ResponsibleSteel – the world’s leading full-spectrum sustainability standard for steel – and each regional standard.
1 Estimate based on 2024 World Steel Association total crude steel production against production of ResponsibleSteel member sites with certification, an estimated average capacity utilisation rate among non-certified ResponsibleSteel member sites and LESS members, and an assumption that CISA’s members make up 90% of Chinese steel production.
