Toward a Tradable, Low-Carbon Product Standard for Steel: Policy Design Considerations for the United States

This research paper by the World Resources Institute outlines policy design considerations for implementing a tradable, low-carbon product standard for the steel industry in the United States to incentivize the adoption of decarbonization technologies while maintaining international competitiveness.

• Steel production in the United States is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 100 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. It represents over 80 percent of direct emissions from metals manufacturing, 5 percent of all industrial emissions, and about 1.5 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions.
• The paper proposes a low-carbon product standard for the U.S. steel industry based on an emissions intensity benchmark with tradable credits. Under this system, companies with emissions intensity lower than the benchmark generate credits, while those with higher intensity must surrender them.
• To be effective, the standard should cover intermediate steel products—specifically sheets, plates, bars, beams, pipes, and tubes—at the point of first sale from mills to consumers. The emissions intensity metric should include all Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as well as significant Scope 3 upstream emissions.
• To prevent carbon leakage and protect competitiveness, the standard should apply to all steel products produced and sold in the United States, including imported upstream products (e.g., iron ore, coke, steel slabs) and downstream products (e.g., appliances, cars), subject to a value-based cutoff threshold.
• While a low-carbon product standard is a key tool, full decarbonization requires a suite of complementary policies tailored to different technology phases, such as R&D funding for early stages, production tax credits for diffusion, and carbon pricing for commercially available technologies.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Toward a Tradable, Low-Carbon Product Standard for Steel: Policy Design Considerations for the United States. https://www.wri.org/research/toward-tradable-low-carbon-product-standard-steel-policy-design-considerations-united

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Toward a Tradable, Low-Carbon Product Standard for Steel: Policy Design Considerations for the United States. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/toward-tradable-low-carbon-product-standard-steel-policy-design-considerations-united.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Toward a Tradable, Low-Carbon Product Standard for Steel: Policy Design Considerations for the United States |url=https://www.wri.org/research/toward-tradable-low-carbon-product-standard-steel-policy-design-considerations-united |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendtoward, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Toward a Tradable, Low-Carbon Product Standard for Steel: Policy Design Considerations for the United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/toward-tradable-low-carbon-product-standard-steel-policy-design-considerations-united}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }