The development path of steel green agreement is clear, focusing on "intelligent carbon use" and "carbon direct avoidance"

Since the second half of 2020, the European Iron and Steel Federation has successively issued the Development Path and specific points of the "green agreement on Steel" , clearly stating that the European Iron and steel industry will be transformed by 2050 and become the core of the low-carbon circular economy, and a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% to 95% by 2050(compared with 1990) . The European Commission released the European Green Agreement at the end of 2019 and made it an important part of its post-epidemic economic plan to restart Europe after the outbreak. The steel industry is one of the most advanced in Europe in terms of forward-looking planning for a green transformation. Eusteel believes that the steel green agreement will become the flagship of the European Green Agreement. Energy is the key to realize the low carbon target of iron and steel industry. Around the Steel Green Agreement, Eusteel has formulated a series of development paths to realize the climate commitment, among which two main technological paths ——"smart Carbon use" and "carbon direct avoidance" -- are closely related to energy conservation. "smart Carbon use" can be achieved by reintegrating carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into steel production processes, such as the Hisarna, Igar, PEM, and STEPWISE projects under way in the EU; Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide could also be used to make other valuable products, such as the European Union's ongoing Steelanol, Carbon2chem, FReSMe, Everest, Carbon2Value projects. Some of these projects have entered the stage of technical maturity, some still need to be further studied. "Carbon direct avoidance" includes hydrogen-based smelting and electrical reduction methods using green energy. Therefore, the arc furnace route will be the basis to improve the status of European steel industry in the circular economy. If fully implemented, it would revolutionize European metallurgy. Green Electricity and green industrial products (such as green steel) will bring huge benefits to society, so Europe needs to complete the energy transformation as soon as possible. At the same time, given that the manufacturing costs of green steel are 35 to 100 per cent higher than those of the highly optimized processes currently in use, EU policymakers should press ahead with the creation of a green market.