The European Green Deal emphasizes the will of the European Union to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. Important decisions have to be taken very soon for the phase until 2030 for the deployment of the first low-carbon breakthrough technologies on industrial scale, especially in energy-intensive sectors.

The steel industry as well as other basic materials industries need to go through a major transformation process to meet the EU climate objectives. Fulfilling the targets is challenging but technically possible, e.g. via hydrogen-based steelmaking, carbon capture and utilisation/storage, process integration, and utilisation of steel recycling within the limits of scrap availability.

However, despite the high CO2 reduction potential, companies still face huge barriers in terms of commercialisation. Estimations show that the production costs of low-carbon breakthrough technologies will increase significantly under the current political framework, making it impossible for domestic companies to compete on the world market against companies which do not have to undergo climate-related transformational processes.