The UK government on Monday published eight detailed reports on how its EU ETS-regulated heavy industries can make big emission reductions in line with the country’s binding climate targets to 2050.

The reports covered cement, ceramics, chemicals, food and drink, glass, iron and steel, oil refining, and paper and pulp and were produced after two years of close collaboration with the industries, universities and NGOs.

“This first step is in many ways the easiest; the work that comes next in developing the correct policy enablers to bring about this change, and the investment required to enable it, is where the work really begins,” said Gareth Stace, director of UK steel said in a statement.

“Emissions reductions in the steel sector rely heavily on breakthrough, and largely unproven, technologies such as carbon capture and storage. The levels of investment required to bring these technologies to fruition are vast and it is vital that industry and government now work together to devise innovative policy interventions that can bring this about. There is currently a significant policy gap.

“Additionally, it is vital that government places considerations of industrial competitiveness at the centre of decarbonisation policy in the future. Central to this is long-term certainty around the compensation package for the pass-through costs of electricity sector decarbonisation, as well as the necessary reforms to carbon leakage measures within the EU ETS.”

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