This report provides actions for, and conditions to, a Copenhagen climate agreement from the perspective of the EU steel sector.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges for the future of steel industry. As a sector, it is responsible for 3 to 5% of worldwide CO2 emissions. Any emission reduction commitments agreed at as an outcome of the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, will have a substantial impact on the steel sector. This holds even more as the CO2 performances differ widely per region and country, and between plants within countries. Europe has taken the lead in formulating ambitious climate change policies, but it remains to be seen if other countries and regions will follow.

In this context Corus Netherlands has asked the Clingendael International Energy Programme and CE Delft to write a position paper discussing the relationship between climate change policies and competitiveness in the global steel sector. Question is how the need for effective action to confront global climate change can be combined with a level playing field for competition in the global steel sector, taking into account the position of Corus Netherlands as a European steel producer. More specifically; what conditions in an international agreement could provide such a level playing field?