{"id":291165,"date":"2023-12-13T17:53:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291165"},"modified":"2023-12-13T17:53:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:53:17","slug":"british-steel-workers-wont-survive-net-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291165","title":{"rendered":"British steel workers\u00a0 won\u2019t survive Net Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The transition to eco- friendly steel is already threatening thousands of livelihoods.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By JAMES WOUDHUYSEN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lo and behold, the real cost of Net Zero. Last weekend, roughly 400 workers from the steelworks in Port Talbot, Wales marched in protest against the prospect of up to\u00a03,000 redundancies<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Tata Steel, the Indian owner of the Port Talbot factory, struck a deal with the UK government \u2013 it would\u00a0receive \u00a3500million<\/a>\u00a0for switching to \u2018greener\u2019 methods of steel production. And that means redundancies. Spiked Online<\/strong><\/em><\/a> has the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Port Talbot\u2019s two low-productivity, high-CO2 emissions blast furnaces are to be switched for a high-productivity, low-CO2 electric arc furnace (EAF). With this transition, 3,000 of the plant\u2019s 4,000 jobs may become obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture is similar over at Tata\u2019s rival, British Steel. The Chinese-owned British Steel has begged for\u00a0\u00a3600million of government support<\/a>\u00a0to replace its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire with EAFs. British Steel, which is currently\u00a0haemorrhaging around \u00a330million a month<\/a>, will shed perhaps\u00a02,000 of the 3,200 jobs at Scunthorpe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Tata<\/a> and British Steel<\/a> have justified their redundancies in terms of reaching Net Zero by 2050. And while it\u2019s true that the Port Talbot plant is the UK\u2019s biggest single carbon emitter<\/a>, this needs to be put into perspective. Replacing the blast furnaces in Port Talbot would cut UK carbon emissions by just 1.5 per cent. Given that Britain emits just one per cent of global CO2<\/a> each year, an EAF at Port Talbot would reduce the world\u2019s CO2 quotient by a grand total of 0.01 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, even if transitioning to EAFs would make a huge dent in global emissions, would it be worth it? Probably not. Like so many green technologies, EAFs are not a direct substitute for the technology they seek to replace. They rely on scrap steel rather than iron ore for their input, and therefore aren\u2019t ideal for making the \u2018virgin steel\u2019\u00a0that car-making and most other industries require<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EAFs are prone to other snags, too. They can\u2019t handle electricity blackouts, which is worrying given Britain\u2019s ill-advised decision to rely on intermittent and unreliable wind power<\/a>. And they\u2019ll be vulnerable to increases in electricity prices, which are only likely to worsen with the drive to Net Zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EAFs also use electrodes made of graphite. The trouble is that\u00a0more than 90 per cent of the world\u2019s graphite<\/a>\u00a0is refined in China. And last month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)\u00a0imposed export permits<\/a>\u00a0for some graphite products on national-security grounds. Prices for graphite are therefore likely to rise. And it will be\u00a010 or 20 years<\/a>\u00a0before the West is able to produce anywhere near as much\u00a0graphite synthetically<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, none of this matters to our eco-obsessed elites. The unachievable goal of Net Zero trumps all other considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch has tried to present the \u2018transition to sustainable steel\u2019 as some sort of win for Britain\u2019s \u2018economic security\u2019, \u2018resilience\u2019 and \u2018sovereign capability\u2019. But a government document on \u2018securing\u2019 the future of Welsh steel<\/a> concedes that there will be job losses. In a footnote, it tries to reassure any workers \u2018affected by the proposals\u2019 that they will have access to Universal Credit and retraining through Job Centre Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK government clearly has very little interest in boosting the steel industry or in supporting the people who depend on it.\u00a0Funding for research and development<\/a>\u00a0into steel processes and products is so miniscule as to be basically worthless. Besides, almost all of this research funding, whether it comes from the private sector or the state, is skewed towards making greener steel, rather than on improving the productivity or competitiveness of our steelworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK appears to have given up on steel. If steelmaking is to have a future, we will need to put an end to the elites\u2019 Net Zero delusions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Woudhuysen<\/strong>\u00a0is visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK appears to have given up on steel. If steelmaking is to have a future, we will need to put an end to the elites\u2019 Net Zero delusions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":291174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The UK appears to have given up on steel. If steelmaking is to have a future, we will need to put an end to the elites\u2019 Net Zero delusions.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691818618,691818154,691819094,691822655],"class_list":{"0":"post-291165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-co2","9":"tag-energy-transition","10":"tag-net-zero","11":"tag-renewable-green-energy","12":"tag-steel-workers","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0British-Steel-1.webp?fit=1860%2C1046&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1dKd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279011,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279011","url_meta":{"origin":291165,"position":0},"title":"Steel workers facing job losses under \u00a3500 million Net Zero subsidy\u00a0plan","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/16\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Thousands of workers at Britain\u2019s biggest steel mill are facing redundancy under a taxpayer-funded net zero plan.","rel":"","context":"In \"green steel\"","block_context":{"text":"green steel","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=green-steel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-493.png?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-493.png?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-493.png?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-493.png?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-493.png?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":245682,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=245682","url_meta":{"origin":291165,"position":1},"title":"Net Zero Intelligence: British TUC Demands Net Zero AND Energy Subsidies","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/26\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The TUC are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-831.png?fit=1200%2C422&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-831.png?fit=1200%2C422&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-831.png?fit=1200%2C422&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-831.png?fit=1200%2C422&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-831.png?fit=1200%2C422&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":297835,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=297835","url_meta":{"origin":291165,"position":2},"title":"Port Talbot has been sacrificed to the angry god of net zero","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/21\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"How to murder a town. 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The Indian owners Tata\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"greener and cheaper\"","block_context":{"text":"greener and cheaper","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=greener-and-cheaper"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Bloom.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Bloom.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Bloom.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Bloom.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Bloom.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":386835,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386835","url_meta":{"origin":291165,"position":3},"title":"Decline of the Great North American Decarbonization Charade","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Through ESG \u2013 Environmental, Social and Governance \u2013 mandates, the titans of global finance positioned themselves as the arbiters of corporate virtue. 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