World Economic Forum selects Greenhouse to launch 'Near-Zero Steel 2030 Challenge'

SYDNEY, Sept. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) is calling for businesses globally to commit to producing and purchasing near-zero emissions steel by 2030, with the launch of an innovation challenge during New York Climate Week.

The 'Near-Zero Steel 2030 Challenge' will be sponsored by the WEF's First Movers Coalition (WEF FMC), an alliance of global companies using their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies and reduce emissions across 'hardest to abate' sectors such as aviation, shipping, trucking, and steel.

The Challenge will run on the Greenhouse Challenge Platform, designed and hosted by Australia's most ambitious climate action ecosystem, Greenhouse, which recently opened applications for startups to join its new $29 million climate tech hub in the Sydney CBD to help scale ambitious climate technologies.

The Platform acts as a transparent marketplace for running thematic challenges focused on addressing climate change, with companies like HolonIQ among the first to use it.

For this initiative, FMC will integrate the demand and supply sides of the steel industry by connecting companies interested in purchasing near-zero steel with companies that have the capability or interest in producing it.

It will also connect steel suppliers to climate tech companies specialising in enabling technologies like hydrogen, renewable energy, and carbon capture, thereby bringing together the supply side of steel with the technologies that will enable them to create a supply of near-zero steel.

As part of the challenge, FMC steel members are committing to purchasing near-zero steel for at least 10 percent of their steel purchases by 2030.

Mark Rowland, Chief Collaboration Officer of Greenhouse, said: "Near-zero steel has the potential to drastically cut down global greenhouse gas emissions. But for that to happen, we need to create the technology and commitment to get on board.

"Unprecedented times call for unique, unprecedented collaborations and solutions. Rather than have individual companies operating in a vacuum, we would like to connect companies, investors, and enabling technologies to allow collaboration to fast-track the development and deployment of climate tech solutions."

Nancy Gillis, Programme Head of the First Movers Coalition, said: "Since its launch in Glasgow at COP26, the First Movers Coalition has become a $15 billion demand signal for innovative clean technologies and energy sources to decarbonise its seven hard-to-abate focus sectors. Now we are thrilled to be working with Greenhouse to launch the Near-Zero Steel 2030 Challenge, which will send a further powerful demand signal to the steel industry for near-zero emission steel.

"We want near-zero steel suppliers to know that there is a market available for their product by 2030. We also seek to connect steel suppliers with innovative new technologies to support their decarbonisation.

"The challenge's focus on both the supply and demand sides will help to accelerate the scale-up of innovative clean technologies and progress the steel industry towards net zero emissions."

The steel industry consumes 5.9 percent of global energy and emits 6 to 9 percent of global CO2 emissions, according to the NSW Government's Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

The Challenge will launch on 19 September at the New York Climate Week, when it will call for submissions from companies pledging to purchase near-zero steel and companies ready to step up to the challenge of supplying it.

Supporting partners to WEF and the Near-Zero Steel 2030 Steel Challenge include ResponsibleSteel, RMI, Boston Consulting Group, and Deloitte.

In late July, the Australian government signed up as a partner of the FMC, joining countries like the UK and the US. This comes off the back of the Australian government reaffirming its ties with the US government, with the transition to clean energy being the third pillar of the US-Australia Alliance alongside defense and economic cooperation.

Greenhouse has also been awarded $750,000 from the NSW Government to support the Greenhouse challenge business and scale the platform.

Greenhouse (greenhouse.tech) is a climate action ecosystem that connects climate tech innovators to investors, corporate partners, academic experts, government agencies, and other organisations to solve the world's largest global challenge of our time: climate change. The Greenhouse ecosystem of organisations, climate tech, climate tech supporters, and communities is growing fast. There are many different ways to participate, including reserving space in our co-working Climate Tech Hub, joining Greenhouse Challenge, and attending climate-action-relevant events.

The First Movers Coalition (www.weforum.org/first-movers-coalition) is the World Economic Forum's flagship decarbonisation initiative, aimed at harnessing the purchasing power of companies to decarbonize seven 'hard-to-abate' industrial sectors that currently account for 30 percent of global emissions: Aluminum, Aviation, Chemicals, Concrete, Shipping, Steel and Trucking; along with accelerating the adaptation of innovative Carbon Removal Technologies.