Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of pilots of hydrogen steelmaking being undertaken across Europe.

Decarbonising UK industry is a core part of the Government’s ambitious plan for the green industrial revolution. The Net Zero Strategy, published in October 2021, reaffirms our commitment to work in collaboration with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’. Hydrogen-based steelmaking is one of the technological approaches being examined as part of this process.

The Government is monitoring international progress on low carbon steel making trials, using hydrogen and other technologies, and is actively engaged in international initiatives to support industrial decarbonisation innovation, including the Mission Innovation Platform and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition.

The UK steel sector has the opportunity to bid into industrial fuel switching innovation programmes under the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), which is intended to promote switching away from more carbon-intensive fuel sources.

The Government will continue to work together with sector through the Steel Council on the shared endeavour of a low carbon future.