3 Austria
Co- designing a low- carbon transition
pathway focusing on energy supply for
the iron and steel sector
Brigitte Wolkinger, Jakob Mayer, Andreas Tuerk,
Gabriel Bachner, and Karl Steininger
The EU’s decarbonisation goals for 2050, as laid down in the Roadmap for
moving to a competitive low- carbon economy in 2050, aim for reducing greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions by 80 to 95% (compared with 1990 levels) and requires
steep emission reductions after 2030 (EUR- Lex–52011DC0112–EN–EUR- Lex,
n.d.). So far, decarbonisation efforts have relied on gradual improvements in
energy efficiency or expansion of renewables, but over coming decades there is a
need to accelerate efforts through breakout technologies and cost reduction. De
Pee et al. (2018) emphasise in their analysis that decarbonisation pathways for
the industrial sector are less defined (than, for example, when compared with
the power sector) as the sector is embedded in a global context and has a relatively high share of emissions from feedstocks and high- temperature heat. In
Austria, GHG emissions from energy production, transport and other energy
sources in total decreased between 1990 and 2014 by about 5% while emissions
from industry (including process emissions) increased by 12% (European
Environment Agency, 2016). Besides energy efficiency measures, further and
stronger mitigation and more radical action is required, such as substituting
current industrial processes with low- emission alternatives. For some industrial
sectors this could be the most fundamental change of the production process in
their history.
Industrial production, and especially basic material production such as iron and
steel, is often strongly interrelated with other sectors of the domestic and international economy. Its centrality in economic production has been empirically
tested and detected in several regional economies deploying network theory on
input–output tables (e.g. for the US, Canada, and Mexico by Aroche- Reyes
(2002) and by Muñiz, Raya, and Carvajal (2008) for the case of Europe). This
implies a relatively wide range of possible risks and indirect effects when decarbonising these key sectors. However, as technical options are being developed,
the associated risks of their implementation are often insufficiently assessed
because the scope of analysis for such options is often set very narrowly (e.g.
Fischedick et al., 2014) and thus salient aspects like system- wide effects and repercussions are disregarded. A quantitative assessment of the macroeconomic effects
Co- designing a low- carbon transition
pathway focusing on energy supply for
the iron and steel sector
Brigitte Wolkinger, Jakob Mayer, Andreas Tuerk,
Gabriel Bachner, and Karl Steininger
The EU’s decarbonisation goals for 2050, as laid down in the Roadmap for
moving to a competitive low- carbon economy in 2050, aim for reducing greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions by 80 to 95% (compared with 1990 levels) and requires
steep emission reductions after 2030 (EUR- Lex–52011DC0112–EN–EUR- Lex,
n.d.). So far, decarbonisation efforts have relied on gradual improvements in
energy efficiency or expansion of renewables, but over coming decades there is a
need to accelerate efforts through breakout technologies and cost reduction. De
Pee et al. (2018) emphasise in their analysis that decarbonisation pathways for
the industrial sector are less defined (than, for example, when compared with
the power sector) as the sector is embedded in a global context and has a relatively high share of emissions from feedstocks and high- temperature heat. In
Austria, GHG emissions from energy production, transport and other energy
sources in total decreased between 1990 and 2014 by about 5% while emissions
from industry (including process emissions) increased by 12% (European
Environment Agency, 2016). Besides energy efficiency measures, further and
stronger mitigation and more radical action is required, such as substituting
current industrial processes with low- emission alternatives. For some industrial
sectors this could be the most fundamental change of the production process in
their history.
Industrial production, and especially basic material production such as iron and
steel, is often strongly interrelated with other sectors of the domestic and international economy. Its centrality in economic production has been empirically
tested and detected in several regional economies deploying network theory on
input–output tables (e.g. for the US, Canada, and Mexico by Aroche- Reyes
(2002) and by Muñiz, Raya, and Carvajal (2008) for the case of Europe). This
implies a relatively wide range of possible risks and indirect effects when decarbonising these key sectors. However, as technical options are being developed,
the associated risks of their implementation are often insufficiently assessed
because the scope of analysis for such options is often set very narrowly (e.g.
Fischedick et al., 2014) and thus salient aspects like system- wide effects and repercussions are disregarded. A quantitative assessment of the macroeconomic effects