Peter Aldous welcomes Government action to lay the foundations for a world-leading clean steel industry and calls for a border carbon adjustment on imported goods based on their carbon content; clear targets for the use of clean steel in infrastructure projects; and the promotion of a clean steel demonstrator project.
8.25pm
Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)
I will take the few short minutes available to me to highlight the need to promote the production of clean steel, which can play a key role in the covid recovery, levelling up and decarbonisation. With COP26 rapidly coming into view on the horizon, there is an opportunity for the UK to be a global leader in this sector.
In the next few years, there will be an enormous increase in the demand for steel, and that is already manifesting itself in significant price increases. In East Anglia and off our coast, steel will be required for the largest array of offshore wind farms in the world, for the building of the Sizewell C nuclear power station and the cabling required for renewing and extending our grid.
However, we must not ignore the environmental impact of steel production, as the industry contributes up to 7% of the world’s CO2 emissions. The rapid emergence of hydrogen, which has quickly evolved from the new kid on the block to the energy sector’s Swiss army penknife, provides the UK with the USP for promoting clean steel, whether from carbon capture, offshore wind or nuclear power. The volume of hydrogen needed for steel production is of reasonable proportions to match either blue hydrogen or green hydrogen.
East Anglia, as you are well aware, Madam Deputy Speaker, is not an established centre for the steel industry, but we are uniquely placed to play a major role in the changing face of domestic steel production due to ready access to low-carbon energy sources, whether offshore wind through carbon capture for the existing gas infrastructure focused on Bacton, or Sizewell C. It is also important that in the supply chain we promote and develop fabrication hubs in places such as Lowestoft, where skills and expertise have been built up in shipbuilding and the oil and gas industry for well over a century.
The Government are laying the foundations for a world-leading clean steel industry with the 10-point plan, the industrial decarbonisation strategy and the industrial fuel switching competition. It is vital that they now build on that work, announce the findings of the call for evidence for the clean steel fund and bring forward the following policy initiatives: first, a border carbon adjustment on imported goods based on their carbon content; secondly, the setting of clear targets for the use of clean steel by specific dates in infrastructure projects; and, finally, the promotion of a clean steel demonstrator project. It is also important that the forthcoming hydrogen strategy provides the framework for the industry to develop in East Anglia.