Environment and Energy

Cliffs reaches emissions goals early, sets new targets

May 24, 2024

After achieving its 2030 greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets well ahead of schedule, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has set new reduction goals.

Cliffs had previously committed to reducing its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25%, relative to 2017 levels, by 2030. The Cleveland-based steelmaker said on Friday that it’s already achieved that goal.

“Cleveland-Cliffs has achieved unquestionable success in reducing GHG emissions, by more than we anticipated and way ahead of our original 2030 target date,” Chairman, President, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement. “Our outperformance has given us the ability to further pursue more ambitious and very relevant new challenges.”

As a result, the company has set new goals for reducing emissions. By 2035, relative to 2023 levels, Cliffs plans to reduce GHG emissions intensity per metric ton of crude steel by 30% for scope 1 and 2 emissions and by 20% for scope 3.

Cliffs said the main drivers in the reductions will be the previously announced projects at its Middletown, Ohio, and Butler, Pa., plants. Those undertakings include replacing the Middletown blast furnace with a direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant and two electric melting furnaces (EMFs). At Butler Works, it plans to replace natural-gas fired high-temp slab reheat furnaces with four electrified induction slab reheat furnaces.

Additional reductions will be achieved “by other operational initiatives and energy-efficiency enhancement projects,” the company said.

Additionally, Cliffs set a longer-term goal of reducing scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to near net zero by 2050.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. Since 2007, she has held various editorial and marketing positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills. In 2021, after a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel trade journalism, joining SMU in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.