UK government offers £600m to British Steel and Tata for green upgrades

The UK government has offered £600m to prop up Britain’s four remaining steel blast furnaces to help it develop lower-emissions technology.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce the support of £300m each for British Steel and Tata Steel as soon as this week, according to the Guardian.

The steel industry is one of the most difficult to decarbonise because of the huge energy requirements and the use of coking coal in iron smelting, a process which emits carbon dioxide directly.

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer for GMB, one of the unions representing steelworkers, said: “Any investment in the UK’s beleaguered steel industry is welcome.

“But ultimately this is a sticking plaster – it does nothing to address the wider issues in the industry; catastrophic energy costs and a grossly uneven international trading environment.”