"Unlocking Green Steel Demand: An Assessment of India's Automotive, Infrastructure and Construction Sectors" – a whitepaper by the India Green Steel Coalition, a joint initiative between WWF-India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was released today at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. It highlights the pivotal role of India's construction, infrastructure and automotive sectors in driving the shift towards low-carbon steel and charts the projected rise in demand for green steel through to 2050, examines the cost implications of decarbonisation, and outlines how green hydrogen and supportive policy measures can enable this transition. Emphasising climate urgency and trade competitiveness, the whitepaper positions green steel as essential to achieving India's net zero ambitions while sustaining industrial growth.
Green steel can revolutionise the future of the Indian automotive, infrastructure and construction sectors- let's know more from Vishal Dev, Director- Sustainable Business, WWF-India.
Q1. WHAT IS GREEN STEEL?
Green steel refers to steel produced using low-emission technologies and processes that drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional methods. The International Energy Agency (IEA) defines green steel as having an emissions intensity of less than 0.4 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of crude steel. This benchmark is significantly lower than both the global average of 1.91 tCO₂/tcs and India's current average, which stands at approximately 2.55 tCO₂/tcs. This underscores the scale of transformation required, particularly for a coal-reliant steel economy like India. The India Green Steel Coalition (IGSC) has adopted this IEA benchmark of 0.4 tCO₂/tcs as the reference point for defining and supporting green steel adoption in India.
Q2. WHY IS THE TRANSITION TO GREEN STEEL A FOCUS FOR WWF-INDIA?
WWF-India has been working on biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, renewable energy, and sustainable livelihoods for over five decades. As one of the most carbon-intensive industries, steel contributes around 12% of India's GHG emissions, making it a critical sector for climate action.
WWF's Global Steel Decarbonisation Strategy aims to reduce emissions intensity in line with the 1.5°C climate goal. In India, WWF-India in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has taken the lead by launching the India Green Steel Coalition (IGSC) to support the transition to low-emission steel through enabling policies, technology adoption, market alignment, and finance. Decarbonising steel is central to WWF-India's mission of building a future where industrial growth and environmental sustainability go hand in hand.
Q3. WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO DECARBONISE PRIMARY STEEL PRODUCTION?
Decarbonising steel production is particularly challenging because it falls within the category of "hard-to-abate" sectors where emissions are deeply embedded in the nature of production process of steel through the conventional coal-based route.
In the blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF–BOF) route, which currently accounts for the majority of primary steel production in India, coal serves a dual purpose. It is used as a reductant to extract iron from iron ore in the presence of limestone and as a fuel for high-temperature combustion. This makes emissions unavoidable unless the process itself is fundamentally transformed.
Moreover, alternative low-emission technologies such as green hydrogen-based DRI are still at early stages of scale-up and require significant infrastructure investments, renewable energy availability and long-term policy support.
These technological, economic and infrastructural challenges make the decarbonisation of primary steel particularly complex but also essential, as it holds the key to achieving deep emissions reductions across the sector.
Q4. WHAT IS INDIA'S GREEN STEEL COALITION? HOW WAS IT CONCEPTUALISED AND FORMED?
The IGSC is a strategic multi-stakeholder platform launched jointly by WWF-India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 2024. It brings together ~70% of India's crude steel production capacity across both primary and secondary producers, along with demand-side companies, technology providers, research institutions, and international partners. The Coalition aims to reduce the carbon intensity of India's steel production by 30% by 2030 compared to 2023. IGSC facilitates collaboration across the value chain through science-based advocacy, capacity-building workshops, policy engagement and thematic action groups such as renewable energy cluster development for the secondary steel sector.
At its core, the Coalition seeks to drive voluntary commitments linked to green steel production and consumption from its members, reinforcing collective ambition and accountability in India's net-zero journey.
Q5. THE WHITEPAPER, "UNLOCKING GREEN STEEL DEMAND: AN ASSESSMENT OF INDIA'S AUTOMOTIVE, INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SECTORS" EXPLORES SOLUTIONS FOR ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF LOW-CARBON STEEL IN INDIA. CAN YOU HIGHLIGHT THE ROLE OF SECTORS LIKE CONSTRUCTION, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND AUTOMOTIVE IN DRIVING THE MARKET FOR GREEN STEEL?
Since green steel production will only scale when there is a viable market demand, the India Green Steel Coalition undertook this assessment to evaluate the potential for green steel uptake across key demand-side sectors. Our latest whitepaper, 'Unlocking Green Steel Demand,' focuses on construction, infrastructure, and automotive, which are the most influential sectors currently shaping steel consumption patterns in India.
Collectively, construction and infrastructure account for 78% of India's finished steel demand, making them the natural starting points for driving demand-side market transformation. With rapid urbanisation, sustainable real estate development and mega infrastructure projects underway, this segment presents the largest opportunity to mainstream low-carbon steel.
The automotive sector, though a relatively smaller consumer, holds disproportionate influence due to its deep integration with global value chains. Leading global automakers such as Volvo have already committed to using green steel in their manufacturing processes, and this may soon follow in the Indian automotive sector.
Moreover, international policies like the EU's Green Public Procurement norms and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) are beginning to influence Indian exporters, creating strong incentives to decarbonise upstream supply chains.
As a result, green steel adoption is rapidly becoming both a strategic necessity and a reputational asset for Indian companies. Our findings suggest that with the right policy signals and procurement frameworks, these sectors can catalyse a large-scale shift towards low-emission steel consumption by 2030 and beyond.
Q6. CURRENTLY, GREEN STEEL CARRIES A PRICE PREMIUM. HOW CAN POLICY OR TECHNOLOGY CHANGE HELP MAKE IT MORE AFFORDABLE IN THE YEARS TO COME?
Every transformative technology begins its journey with the need for early-stage funding support, and green steel is no exception. While the transition is both environmentally essential and strategically inevitable, it does come with a near-term cost burden that must be addressed through a combination of policy, technological scale-up and market activation.
India's steel demand is projected to rise from 136 million metric tonnes (MMT) today to nearly double by 2030. Green steel, particularly produced through green hydrogen-based Direct Reduced Iron (GH₂–DRI) and renewable-powered Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), carries a premium of USD 210 per tonne. This translates into modest increases in end-user costs: 3.7% in construction, 5.2% in infrastructure, and 4.1% in automotive manufacturing. This premium is due to the high cost of green hydrogen, the nascent stage of supporting infrastructure and limited economies of scale.
However, as India rapidly urbanises and domestic decarbonisation efforts accelerate, these cost dynamics are expected to shift. By 2030, the green steel premium is projected to fall sharply from USD 210/tonne to just USD 7/tonne. This will diminish the sectoral costs.
To enable this transition, robust policy support will be essential through carbon pricing, incentives for low-emission technologies and renewable energy or green procurement mandates. At the same time, strong demand signals from sectors like construction, infrastructure and automotive will be critical to scale up production and lower costs.
Q7. WHAT DO YOU HOPE FOR THE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER INITIATIVE, THE INDIA GREEN STEEL COALITION, TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEXT 5–10 YEARS?
The ultimate goal of the India Green Steel Coalition is to enable a gradual but decisive transition toward green steel production in India, thereby reducing the sector's overall emissions in line with the country's net-zero ambitions. To support this, IGSC is focused on driving voluntary commitments from its members towards green steel production and consumption.
Over the next 5–10 years, we expect IGSC to play a catalytic role in shaping India's green steel ecosystem in the following ways:
-Technology transformation by shifting to green production pathways: India's steel production must transition from coal-based processes to energy-efficient, RE-powered EAFs. Through our Renewable Energy Action Group, we are conducting feasibility assessments for RE cluster models that could support this transition at scale. Large number of SMEs involved in Secondary Steel sector are dependent on conventional energy intensive technologies and practices. By increasing the awareness and bringing in more investment, we aim to increase the share of energy-efficient technologies especially in the secondary steel sector, which is more disaggregated.
- Policy advocacy: Actively engage with ministries and policymakers to shape incentives, carbon pricing mechanisms and green procurement frameworks that can unlock early demand and reduce investment risk.
- Finance mobilisation: Engage with banks, financial institutions, and international partners to strengthen capacity around green finance and support industry access to capital for low-carbon technologies.
- Enhanced energy security: Green steel production relies on renewable energy sources, which can reduce India's reliance on fossil fuels and enhance energy security.
- Job creation and air quality improvements: Greening steel also means healthier cities, cleaner air, and resilient supply chains, especially in steel-intensive states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Embracing green steel production can significantly enhance India's global credibility in the steel industry. This, in turn, can attract greater investment and strengthen support for long-term climate and development goals.