Shipping and Green Steel - Blog Posts 3 out of 4
In June 2023, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) published a remarkable report on green steel and shipping. You can access SSI's web site and find the full report here: Green steel and shipping – Sustainable Shipping
The inquiry is undertaken under the 4 headlines of Knowledge, Business Model, Regulation and Technology. Addressing those headlines in turn, our first two posts in a series of four looked at the Knowledge and Business Model headlines. In this third post, we look into the drivers and barriers listed under the Regulation headline. We first list SSI's text, then our contribution.
Regulation Drivers (quoted from the report):
"The EU is leading the way on carbon pricing through the EU ETS, which will include both steel and shipping and motivate action to decarbonise both sectors. A carbon price set by the IMO would similarly encourage rapid action on decarbonisation."
Our tools will enable precise measurement of emissions along the entire circular steel value chain, and will thus be useful in determining the exact emissions reduction contribution of various steel journeys and the individual steps of the circular steel value chain.
"Reducing unnecessary trade flows can also increase circularity and additional research should be done to identify the most efficient way to use scrap steel globally."
Through the possibility for option planning, using our strong optimisation machine, circular steel can be directed where it makes the most sense in an emissions context, with full knowledge of the economic impact.
"Cooperation among governments and Green Public Procurement (GPP) policies can create avenues for an efficient flow of materials and harmonise procurement frameworks."
Our digital platform will enable a rational and optimised flow of materials, both in terms of pre-recycling scenario planning and in terms of actually tracking circular steel along its journey. This should enable much simpler cooperation and GPP procurement.
Regulation Barriers (quoted from the report):
"Shipping and ship recycling regulation lacks references to a circular economy, limiting understanding and action from shipping stakeholders."
Our platform provides the transparency and planning ability that will enable the visualisation towards all stakeholders, and thus provide persuasive arguments for converting doubters.
"Lack of harmonised international and national regulations may inhibit the transition to circularity by adding complexity and uncertainty when different approaches, requirements, and standards are in force along the steel value chain."
Our digital platform will eventually cover the entire world and will be continuously updated to take into account the different standards etc. to be applied, including in cross-border movement. Our platform already enables this in a European context, for instance by already containing warnings as to the movement of hazardous materials across borders, with the requisite documents to be filled in already embedded.
In short, our digital platform provides the data and the planning ability that will enable market-based regulation and efficient flows of materials, thus allowing the trading of carbon credits and any other regulatory incentives to be adopted.