No "silver bullet" for green transition; govt support needed: Tata Steel CEO TV Narendran

There is "no silver bullet" for green transition in hard-to-abate sectors, including steel, Tata Steel global  CEO & MD T V Narendran said on Saturday, noting it's a complex challenge and needs government support.

The statement from the industry leader comes amid growing concerns across economies over emissions, and need to increase usage of green energy.

Steel is the most commonly used metal in the world and one cannot do without steel. Even for the transition, steel will be needed whether to hold solar panels up, windmills, storage and pipelines, he said addressing a session at B20 Summit India 2023.

"You need to find a solution and there is no silver bullet for that...India is alone going to add 100-150 million tonne steel capacity every decade...for the next few decades you will have these hard-to-abate sectors growing, cement production is twice the amount of steel production globally...you need to find solutions which are technical, which don't get solved by just finding another energy source," he said.

Supply chain in steel sector has been built over 100 years, so transitioning from coal to gas to hydrogen even from supply chain point is a very complex challenge, Narendran, who is also the chairman of Manufacturing Council of industry body CII said.

"This journey is going to be significant and we should not underestimate that the industry can support part of the cost... cost of transition so needs government support. You need customers to be willing to pay more for green products..it's a long journey and I think journey has started in Europe and the US," he said.

In India also, very aggressive renewable energy targets have been set where a lot needs to be done because majority of increasing steel capacity in the world is going to come up in India "and we need to transition to greener process routes."

He further said steel accounts about 8 per cent of the carbon footprint in the world as the industry is growing, particularly in the emerging markets.

The transition can happen only if there is a policy framework to support it and carbon markets which are there in Europe.

Speaking on his company operations in the Netherlands, Narendran said the business there is moving from coal to gas to hydrogen and the transition is important for that nation because Tata Steel Netherlands will become one of the biggest consumers of hydrogen there.

In the UK, it's different because the UK operations have lot of scrap so it's about how do you recycle that.