Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the UK steel industry is able to attract private investment in green technologies and decarbonisation in the context of the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Green Deal.

The Government remains committed to a decarbonised and sustainable steel sector and is working closely with industry to support its decarbonisation options. Industrial sectors (including steel) have already been able to bid into competitive funds worth more than £1 billion to support energy efficiency, innovation and decarbonisation.

We welcome the EU’s ambition on climate and the emphasis placed on open trade and support for developing countries. However, the global challenges we face cannot be resolved through unilateral action. We support EU proposals for collaboration, including proposals for Net Zero Resilience Projects, and we are interested in exploring these and other collaboration options to enhance security of supply across Europe.