JSW Steel and Smartex come together to promote low-emission steel production

JSW Goup's flagship company JSW Steel, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with with Smartex to jointly explore ways to decarbonize steel sector in India. Under the MoU, both JSW Steel and Smartex will find ways to promote innovation and turnkey approaches, which will include financing to make technology available and making the market more accessible, keeping decarbonisation of India's steel sector in mind.

Smartex, that launched the Financing Steel Decarbonisation (FSD) initiative during the 2022 Climate Week in New York City, is creating a $1 billion Steel Decarbonisation Fund (SDF) and an ecosystem to support steel industry decarbonidation. Being the second largest steel producer, India is responsible for over 10 per cent of carbon emissions from energy systems. In words of JSW, decarbonising the steel production is not easy, hence SDF will dedicate a technical assistance facility to support steel industry decarbonisation.

Seshagiri Rao - Joint MD, JSW Steel & Group CFO said that a majority of JSW’s strategic focus areas and organisational goals align with their existing production facility towards climate change mitigation and the goal to reduce CO2 emissions intensity by 42 per cent by 2030 from a base year of 2005. Rao stated that JSW Steel Group is committed to remain within the sustainable development scenario (SDS) pathway as proposed by International Energy Agency (IEA), which requires significant investment. "The proposed Financing Steel Decarbonisation (FSD) initiative and Steel Decarbonisation Fund (SDF), hopefully would provide the right opportunity,” Rao added.

Abhijit Basu, KOP (Keeper of the Purpose) of Smartex, said that by working with a premier steel producer like JSW, Smartex has an opportunity to place India at the forefront of low-emission steel production and create a sustainable path for both the environment and business. “To do this we need to take the risk out of investing and open new doors for entrepreneurs," he said.

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