The climate implications of government support in aluminium smelting and steelmaking
An Empirical Analysis
This report combines multiple novel datasets to provide evidence that government support
has contributed to increased carbon emissions from aluminium and steelmaking activities
through an increase in production output and by shifting production to more emission
intensive plants. While improvements in technology have driven overall emissions downward,
there is no evidence that government support in this sector has been targeted at,
or has contributed to, developing techniques that improve environmental performance.
Removing such support could therefore contribute to a cost-effective decarbonisation
strategy. For example, removing government support to aluminium smelting and steel
making worldwide would reduce carbon emissions by 75% more than the reduction observed
in 2020 resulting from COVID-related restrictions. In addition, the removal of such
support would free up scarce public resources for alternative uses.
Available from October 27, 2023
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