TransitionZero analysis informs UK Government steel strategy

London, UK, 20 March 2026: Analysis from TransitionZero on global steel production costs has been referenced in the UK Government’s latest steel strategy, informing policy decisions on competitiveness and investment in the sector.

The strategy outlines plans to strengthen domestic steel production, support decarbonisation, and deploy up to £2.5 billion in funding. It draws on detailed cost data to assess the challenges facing UK steelmakers and the case for intervention.

TransitionZero’s 2022 The Spotlight Effect report and accompanying Global Steel Cost Tracker provided one of the first open, plant-level views of steel production costs globally, highlighting how energy prices, regional dynamics and technology choices shape competitiveness.

Its inclusion in a major policy framework highlights the growing importance of transparent, decision-grade data in shaping industrial strategy. As governments balance competitiveness with decarbonisation, granular cost insights are becoming essential to designing effective support.

Verity Crane, Heavy Industry Lead at TransitionZero, said:

“Understanding production costs is essential to designing policy that reflects national circumstances while steering the steel sector towards greener technologies. Our analysis, drawing on asset-level data, shows large regional cost disparities that persist. With electricity accounting for the majority of operating costs in EAF and DRI-EAF pathways, the UK’s position as a high-cost outlier is a fundamental barrier to investment. Bringing power prices closer to those of competitor countries is therefore not just supportive of decarbonisation - it is critical to UK steel.”

TransitionZero’s steel analysis has since evolved into its broader Climate TRACE platform, which tracks assets and emissions across five core industrial subsectors globally. By providing asset-level data, Climate TRACE supports better decision-making across the transition

About TransitionZero

TransitionZero is a climate analytics non-profit founded in 2020. We build open-source software and data products that reduce the time to build clean energy at scale. Our flagship tool, Scenario Builder, enables policymakers, planners and investors to analyse electricity systems without coding expertise, supported by model-ready datasets, training and market insights.

Since launching publicly in October 2025, Scenario Builder spans 15 countries and supports around 800 users across our modelling and data products. TransitionZero is entirely grant-funded by leading climate philanthropies, including Quadrature Climate Foundation, Google.org, Sequoia Climate Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the European Climate Foundation.

For more information, contact us.