谁来为钢铁行业绿色化买单(上)

Steelmaking has to get greener. But who'll pay?

钢铁行业必须变得更加环保。但谁来为此买单？

Dates assigned to environmental targets often seem reassuringly - or complacently - distant.

为实现环保目标定下的日期往往遥远得令人安心或自满。

By 2050, the British government has promised, the country's net emissions of greenhouse gases will be zero.

英国政府承诺，到2050年，英国将实现温室气体“净零排放”。

Its advisers on the Climate Change Committee have recommended that steelmaking, which belches about one-tenth of Britain's industrial emissions, should be "near-zero" by 2035.

英国气候变化委员会的顾问建议，到2035年，钢铁行业的排放量应该“接近于零”。而目前，这个数字约占英国工业排放量的十分之一。

If that sounds leisurely, it is anything but.

这听起来不是什么要紧事，但事实绝非如此。

Both steelmakers and ministers must make uncomfortable decisions, involving billions of pounds and thousands of jobs, uncomfortably soon.

钢铁制造商和部长们必须尽快做出决定，这些令人不快的决定事关数十亿英镑和数千个工作岗位。

Britain's two biggest industrial emitters are steelworks: Tata Steel UK's at Port Talbot in south Wales and British Steel's at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.

英国最大的两个工业排放者是：位于南威尔士塔尔伯特港的塔塔钢铁英国公司，和位于林肯郡斯肯索普的英国钢铁公司。

Both make iron and then steel in blast and basic oxygen furnaces, using iron ore, coke - made from coal - and other materials.

这两家公司都使用铁矿石、用煤制成的焦炭和其他材料，在鼓风炉和碱性氧气炉中先炼铁，然后炼钢。

A first step to greener steel would be to switch to electric arc furnaces (EAFS), in which the main inputs are scrap steel and electricity.

让钢铁行业更环保的第一步是改用电弧炉（EAFS），用这种炉子冶炼投入的主要是废钢和电力。

(The total cut in carbon emissions depends on how the electricity is generated.)

（碳排放的总减少量取决于发电方式。）

British Steel is also looking at carbon capture.

英国钢铁公司也在考虑使用碳捕获技术。

A further green goal for the global industry is to use hydrogen in "direct reduction", a process that reduces iron ore to metallic iron for feeding into EAFS.

全球钢铁行业的另一个环保目标是在“直接还原”中使用氢能，“直接还原”是一种将铁矿石还原为金属铁的过程，还原后的金属能够使用电弧炉再次冶炼。

The clock is ticking: one blast furnace at Port Talbot will need replacing, refurbishing or decommissioning in perhaps three years.

时钟在滴答作响：塔尔伯特港的鼓风炉可能要在三年内更换、翻新或正式停用。

The cost of switching Port Talbot to EAFS has been put at up to 3bn Pounds ($3.6bn).

把塔尔伯特港的原有设备全部换为电弧炉的成本预计将高达30亿英镑（合36亿美元）。

Upgrading Scunthorpe will also cost a ten-figure sum.

斯肯索普的设备升级也将花费十位数的金额。

These would be gulpworthy amounts even in a thriving industry.

即使是在蓬勃发展的行业，这些数字也令人难以接受。

But steel in Britain is struggling.

但英国的钢铁行业正在艰难抗争。

Last year output slid by 16% to 6.1m tonnes, the lowest amount since 1932.

去年，英国钢铁产量下滑16%，至610万吨，为1932年以来的最低值。

British Steel, bought out of insolvency by Jingye, a Chinese company, in 2020, is reportedly contemplating 800 job cuts at Scunthorpe.

英国钢铁公司于2020年被中国敬业集团收购，目前英国钢铁公司正考虑在斯肯索普裁员800人。

Last month Liberty Steel said it would reduce production at its EAF in Rotherham, in Yorkshire, and idle other facilities; as many as 400 jobs may go.

上个月，自由钢铁公司表示，将减少约克郡罗瑟勒姆电弧炉的钢铁产量，停用其他设施；并可能会裁员多达400人。

Indian-owned Tata Steel UK did make a profit before tax in 2021-22, but that was the first for 13 years.

印度拥有的塔塔钢铁英国公司在2021-22年实现了税前盈利，但这是13年以来的第一次。