Brazil has the potential to become a global climate hub and to provide the world with low-emissions steel and aluminium. The report, presented at the Brazil Climate Summit Europe (May 2025), outlines how much greener Brazil's commodities are compared to those of leading global producers, levers to further decarbonise them, and how the EU could reduce Scope 3 emissions by importing less carbon-intensive products.
To fully realise its potential as a global supplier of green steel and aluminium, Brazil must scale up and increase the cost competitiveness of its local industry, while addressing four key levers: further decarbonise value chains using its unique advantages, improve financing for decarbonisation solutions, price carbon externalities and reduce demand uncertainty.
In doing so, Brazilian steel could become as much as 4x greener than China's, and its aluminium 7x greener than the world average. Several key initiatives by the private sector (such as increased use of scrap, replacement of coal with biogas and biomass, and branding of low-carbon products), as well as by the public sector (such as blended finance initiatives, platforms for foreign investment flows, and a national emissions trading system), already point the South American giant in the right direction, despite current structural challenges.
Specifically for the European audience, the report provides a clear scenario within which the EU could reduce up to 50 million tonnes of CO₂e emissions from its companies' Scope 3, by importing more steel and aluminium from Brazil than from countries with higher emission intensities.