Driving fundamental shifts in our sector

BlueScope is aware of the critical and global importance of climate change to our business and our stakeholders. We have embedded climate action into our corporate strategy, recognising it is crucial to our long-term success, and we have publicly stated our commitment to taking action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

We believe steel will play an essential role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. In pursuing our decarbonisation pathway, BlueScope considers the impacts that our operations and investments have on our people, communities and a broader range of stakeholders. 

Highlights from our first Climate Action report 

BlueScope's first stand-alone Climate Action Report was released in September 2021, and sets out our strategy and plans to address the decarbonisation challenge across our global operations. 

The full Climate Action Report details our challenges and commitments in taking action on climate change. Here are some highlights: 

Key climate actions 

We believe that steel has an important role to play in a low-carbon future. The combined expertise and dedication of our people, working with our stakeholder communities, will continue to be crucial in progressing our strategy and decarbonisation pathway.  

The Report covers key elements of BlueScope’s action on climate change:  

Our 2050 Net Zero goal: 

We’re driving towards ‘net zero GHG emissions by 2050’, covering direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) emissions across our operational footprint. Achieving this goal is highly dependent on several enablers, including the commerciality of emerging and breakthrough technologies, availability of affordable and reliable renewable energy and hydrogen, availability of quality raw materials and appropriate public policy settings.  

Our 2030 mid-term targets: 

To generate momentum towards achieving our 2050 net zero goal, we have two mid-term 2030 targets.  

In 2018, we set a medium-term steelmaking emissions intensity reduction target of 12 per cent by 2030. This broadly translates to a 1 per cent year on year improvement target.  

We are now introducing a new target of a 30 per cent improvement in non-steelmaking greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 2030. The target will cover our midstream activities (our cold rolled, metal coating and painting lines and long and hollow products), while our downstream activities will be covered by the 2050 net zero goal. This brings total coverage of our 2030 targets to 98 per cent of our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions.   

Our investment plan: 

We will allocate up to $150 million over the next five years to fund our climate-related technology plan that seeks to optimise current operating assets and prepare for emerging and breakthrough technologies.  

Transparency: 

Our Climate Action Report also provides the opportunity to outline further detail with all stakeholders on: 

• our climate strategy and decarbonisation pathway;  
• what future climate scenarios could mean for our operations;  
• our emissions performance;   
• the technologies for lower emissions steelmaking;  
• the integration of climate into our capital allocation framework;  
• the importance of existing and new partnerships, and  
• how public policies will need to support the transition to low and zero emissions steelmaking.  

You can also refer to our latest Sustainability Reporting Suite.