Financing the circular economy
The role of financial institutions in “greening” the European Steel Industry
A. Makrogamvraki (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
Servaas Storm – Mentor (TU Delft - Economics of Technology and Innovation)
Bert Enserink – Mentor (TU Delft - Policy Analysis)
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Abstract
The notion of a Circular Economy is an integral part of the European Green Deal. The change in legislation within EU, will bring the steel industry, in front of a radical, costly transition of their production processes. In this research, the role of the banking sector in assisting the transition of the steel industry, is examined. Our main objective is to answer: How can the European banking industry be incentivised to assist their basic material clients and specifically the steel industry to move towards CE? To do so, a circular scenario of a steel industry is built based on the case of Tata Steel NL to identify the bottlenecks of this transition. These hypotheses are then used in a series of interviews with selected actors. Based on the empirical information collected in and new insights from these interviews, an empirically-tested classification of the uncertainties in the transition of the European steel industry to a circular-economy model is provided. To cope with these uncertainties, a set of policies is proposed, to address the current open loops in the supply chain, to deal with the uncertainties of the “transition period” until we have mature alter-native technologies, to help in the access of green finance and to strengthen the European market.