Jonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

The UK is trumpeting #rail200: the 200th anniversary of the railway. As @markhburton points out, that’s a bit premature: https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/113803780435711720

But I want to re-up Kris de Dekker’s lens.

If we were serious about constructing a low carbon economy, we’d acknowledge, soberly, that we have a steel problem:

“The global iron and steel industry consumes more energy and produces more carbon emissions than any other industry.”

Some notes from Kris’s excellent analysis follow…

Mark Burton (@[email protected])

2025 is being celebrated as the 200th anniversary of the birth of the passenger railway. A bit premature, although there was a one-off excursion on the Stockton and Darlington railway, with passengers traveling on coal wagons, the regular passenger service from 1825-1830 used horse-drawn coaches. In 1830, the Liverpool Manchester railway opened, the first connecting 2 cities and the first scheduled passenger service. Stockton and Darlington Railway - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton_and_Darlington_Railway #rail200

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Show threadMidgePhotoSep 27, 2025

@urlyman @markhburton
Something has to be largest.
Steel and Iron is persistent once out of the ground/furnace, and I think as electricity becomes superabundant the recycling of steel is going to reduce its contribution to CO2.
But chipping away at it is a good work.

#steel #CO2 #electricity #coke

Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

@Photo55 sure. But we’re not really in a chipping away time window. And unfortunately markets are disinterested because they are structurally engineered to be overwhelmingly attentive to the next 3 months.

So what will very probably happen is massive unplanned and unintended contraction. Tough to say exactly why and when. But then we’ll start thinking differently because we’ll have no choice

@markhburton

Show threadMidgePhoto

@urlyman @markhburton
I don't think a maker or seller of steel has any intrinsic desire to burn coal/coke.
Given the opportunity they'll melt metal with electricity, remove oxygen with hydrogen, and take carbon out of iron by magic.
I expect sellers of coal will be working hard against electricity generation by any other means.

Me, I'll cheerfully have electrolytic Titanium and Aluminium components and vehicles, wooden stairs held together by locking peg joints and glue, and so on.

Sep 27, 2025 at 3:54pmMastodon for Android
Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

@Photo55 @markhburton

We’ll definitely accelerate the alternative processes. And that’s good.

The point I’m trying to draw out from Kris’s article – which seems to me pretty thorough and credible – is that the predicament is not addressable solely from the supply side. The mismatch of scale (vast) and time available within which to achieve it (small) is too great. There *has* to be a demand side part to the plan as well.

And crucially…

Show threadJonathan SchofieldSep 27, 2025

@Photo55 @markhburton …even as time fritters away, demand side management cannot be countenanced because it’s too inconvenient for the vacuous political rhetoric of GDP growth.

And thermodynamics doesn’t give a stuff about convenience