New Delhi – India published a taxonomy of green steel in December 2024, defining the term by measured carbon intensity rather than by assertion. Steel below 2.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of finished steel qualifies.
The Ministry of Steel classification sorts output into categories by emissions per tonne. It is the first national framework of its kind, and its significance lies in making a green claim checkable against a number.
A threshold is a starting position, not a verdict
Whether 2.2 tonnes is demanding depends entirely on production route. Electric arc furnaces running on scrap and clean power sit well below it. Blast furnace and basic oxygen routes, which dominate Indian primary production, sit well above.
The threshold therefore functions as a signal about direction rather than a constraint on current operations, and its usefulness depends on whether it tightens on a published schedule.
Scrap is the lever nobody talks about
Government targets raising scrap to 50 per cent of steel input by 2047. Recycled steel avoids iron ore reduction, which is where the emissions in primary steelmaking actually sit.
The constraint is supply. Scrap availability depends on how much steel a country put into buildings and vehicles decades ago, and India built comparatively little. Scrap will grow as that stock ages, on a timetable no policy can accelerate much.
Cement has no equivalent
There is no Indian taxonomy for low-carbon cement, which is a conspicuous gap. Cement emissions are harder still, because roughly half come from the chemistry of turning limestone into clinker and cannot be removed by changing fuel.
Both sectors are covered by the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme and both face European carbon border costs on export, so a company now answers three overlapping regimes on the same emissions.
Source: Ministry of Steel taxonomy of green steel published December 2024, and National Mission on Green Steel consultations.
