By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, March 3 (Reuters) – The European Union has scrapped plans for an emissions label for steel in its upcoming “made in Europe” law, which had initially been intended to help make green steel central to efforts to revive industries, a draft of the proposal showed.
The last-minute change ahead of expected publication on Wednesday of a proposal for a law officially named the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act would be a blow to low-carbon steelmakers. They have called for the label to help make their products more visible and attractive to consumers.
Some departments inside the European Commission, however, expressed concern that the label would create more complex bureaucracy for companies when another EU product labelling law is also being drawn up to address emissions from steel, EU officials told Reuters.
Earlier drafts of the law, reviewed by Reuters, included a voluntary label for the emissions intensity of steel, and a methodology companies would use to calculate this. A more recent draft, reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday, axed the label.
OTHER MEASURES COULD BOOST LOW-CARBON STEEL
The latest draft said Brussels would instead include measures to support demand for low-carbon steel through an EU law on sustainability standards for products. It did not give a date for when this proposal would be made public.
The Industrial Accelerator Act has been repeatedly delayed and the draft could change before publication. A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment.
The law will require that when public money is spent to support technologies, a minimum share of those products is manufactured locally.
The latest draft, seen by Reuters, still included a requirement that steel bought through public procurement would need to be at least 25% low-carbon, to try to kick-start demand for greener steel.
Low-carbon steel producer Hydnum Steel said in a statement a label was needed now and the EU should not “let the ‘perfect’ be the enemy of the ‘timely'”.
“Without this classification, the impact of measures designed to create lead markets will be delayed, failing to direct vital investment toward European producers at this critical juncture,” it said.
A spokesperson for steel industry association Eurofer said delaying the label “risks kicking decisions further down the road at a time when investors need certainty now”.
Across Europe, a number of green steel projects have been delayed or run into difficulties as the technology remains new and investment costs high.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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