Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

JSW Steel to Invest Rs 10,000 to Reduce Carbon Footprint

July 4, 2022
jsw

To reduce its carbon footprint, JSW Steel has earmarked a sum of Rs 10,000 crore to increase the use of renewable energy to replace thermal power and other green initiatives, its Chairman Sajjan Jindal said. Various steel makers use coal to generate thermal power for captive use.

According to a Ministry of Steel document, globally, the iron and steel industry accounts for around 8 per cent of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In India, it contributes 12 per cent to the total CO2 emissions. Thus, the Indian steel industry needs to reduce its emissions substantially in view of the commitments made at the COP26 climate change conference.

“We have earmarked Rs 10,000 crore for investments to reduce our carbon emissions through various initiatives, such as increasing the use of renewable energy to replace thermal power, reducing our fuel rate through improved raw material quality via beneficiation, and deployment of Best Available Technologies (BAT),” Jindal said.

JSW Steel has already signed a deal for 1 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy, of which 225 MW has become operational in April 2022, with the rest to come online in phases, Jindal told shareholders at the company’s annual report.

He further said that the company’s Vijayanagar plant is being expanded from 12 MTPA to 19.5 MTPA and the cost of capital expenditures is much lower than the global benchmark.

“We are consciously going beyond basic steel and are consistently maintaining the share of VASP (value added and special products) in our product mix to over 50 per cent,” he said.

“At JSW Steel, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is core to everything we do. We have committed to reducing our CO2 emissions intensity… by 42 per cent by 2030, compared to the base year of 2005, aligned with India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC),” Jindal added.