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Sydney-based Greenhouse Challenge Platform will be powering a new initiative launched at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the US this week that is aimed at encouraging businesses globally to produce and buy near-zero steel by 2030.
The initiative is being sponsored by WEF’s First Movers Coalition (FMC), an alliance of global companies that use their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies and reduce emissions across ‘hardest to abate’ sectors such as steel products used by aviation, shipping and trucking.
The Greenhouse Challenge Platform had its origins in 1988 as the federal government’s Australian Greenhouse Office, the world’s first government agency dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The platform was relaunched in 2019 following a successful application to the City of Sydney to create Australia’s first co-working space dedicated to climate action, led by Investible subsidiary Greenhouse.
In partnership with the NSW Government, Greenhouse Challenge was relaunched a second time this year as a global platform to support collaboration between the climate action ecosystem to reduce the emissions of corporates by encouraging them to adopt climate tech innovation.
The Greenhouse Challenge Platform, which recently opened applications for startups to join its new $29 million climate tech hub in Sydney to help scale ambitious climate technologies, acts as a transparent marketplace for running thematic challenges focused on addressing climate change.
Among the first users is HolonIQ, which has a global team with offices and hubs in New York, London and Sydney, allowing impact leaders around the world to leverage Greenhouse's analytics capabilities to generate insights and solve complex strategic problems.
For the latest initiative, FMC will integrate the demand and supply sides of the steel industry by connecting companies interested in purchasing near-zero steel with companies that have the capability or interest in producing it.
The Near Zero Steel 2030 challenge connects steel suppliers to climate tech companies specialising in enabling technologies like hydrogen, renewable energy, and carbon capture, thereby bringing together the supply side of steel with the technologies that will enable them to create a supply of near-zero steel.
The steel industry consumes 5.9 per cent of global energy and emits 6 to 9 percent of global CO2 emissions, according to the NSW Government’s Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
As part of the challenge, FMC steel members are committing to purchasing near-zero steel for at least 10 per cent of their steel purchases by 2030.
“Near-zero steel has the potential to drastically cut down global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Mark Rowland, chief collaboration officer of Greenhouse.
“But for that to happen, we need to create the technology and commitment to get on board.
“Unprecedented times call for unique, unprecedented collaborations and solutions. Rather than having individual companies operating in a vacuum, we would like to connect companies, investors, and enabling technologies to allow collaboration to fast-track the development and deployment of climate tech solutions.”
The challenge was launched on 19 September at the New York Climate Week, calling for submissions from companies pledging to purchase near-zero steel and companies ready to step up to the challenge of supplying it.
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