India Certifies 89 Green Steel Units Without Procurement Target

India has moved its green-steel framework into certification, with 89 steel units covering about 12.34 million tonnes of production certified by 31 March 2026. India has not, however, imposed a general mandatory government-purchase quantity or percentage, leaving public-procurement demand dependent on a policy still under examination.

What does India’s green steel certification framework cover?

India’s framework classifies steel according to greenhouse-gas emission intensity rather than conventional product quality. The Ministry of Steel released the Taxonomy of Green Steel for India on 12 December 2024, and it was notified in the Gazette of India on 23 December 2024. The taxonomy applies a threshold of less than 2.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO₂e, per tonne of finished steel, expressed as t-CO₂e/tfs.

The framework separates environmental classification from the standards that govern a steel product’s physical characteristics. The Bureau of Indian Standards, or BIS, assesses matters including chemical composition, mechanical properties, dimensions and conformity requirements. A steel product meeting a relevant BIS standard therefore does not automatically qualify for a green-steel rating, because the taxonomy instead measures emissions at the plant and finished-steel production level.

The 2.2 t-CO₂e/tfs threshold creates three eligible categories and excludes steel above that level. The star-rating thresholds are scheduled for review every three years, meaning that eligibility parameters can change as technology and industry emissions performance develop.

How are India’s green steel ratings measured and verified?

India measures green steel through an emissions boundary covering Scope 1, Scope 2 and specified limited Scope 3 emissions through finished-steel production. The specified Scope 3 boundary includes agglomeration activities, including sintering, pelletisation and coke making, beneficiation, and embodied emissions in purchased raw materials and intermediary products.

India’s prescribed boundary does not include every emission associated with steel’s full life cycle. Upstream mining, downstream emissions, and transportation emissions both outside and within the plant boundary are excluded from the specified Scope 3 calculation. This means that a certified rating reflects the taxonomy’s defined production-stage boundary rather than emissions from mining, downstream use or disposal.

The National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology, or NISST, is the Ministry of Steel’s nodal agency for measurement, reporting and verification, known as MRV, and for issuing certificates and star ratings. The assessment uses the emissions-MRV methodology under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, or CCTS, and compliance procedures issued by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, or BEE. Certificates identify the plant, embodied emissions at the finished-steel level, percentage greenness, star rating and certified quantity.

Implementation has progressed from a December 2024 classification framework to certified output by March 2026. The Ministry of Steel reported 89 certified steel units as of 31 March 2026, covering approximately 12.34 million tonnes of production. That figure demonstrates operating use of the MRV and certificate process, but it does not establish how much certified steel customers, including Government agencies, must buy.

Why has India’s green steel certification not created mandatory public demand?

India has no generally applicable mandatory minimum green-steel percentage or volume for Government agencies procuring steel for public infrastructure or other Government projects. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha in December 2025, the Ministry of Steel confirmed that no procurement target, monitoring framework or compliance mechanism had been prescribed for mandatory green-steel procurement by Government agencies.

The absence of a purchasing requirement separates supply-side certification from demand-side procurement. The taxonomy can identify steel below 2.2 t-CO₂e/tfs and assign three-star through five-star ratings, but it does not require a Government buyer to choose any of those categories. The Ministry of Steel’s December 2025 reply also disclosed no targets, monitoring framework or compliance mechanism for mandatory procurement.

India has nevertheless been examining a Green Steel Public Procurement Policy, or GSPPP, as a potential demand-creation mechanism. The Ministry of Steel’s Greening the Steel Sector in India: Roadmap and Action Plan identifies green public procurement as a prospective measure and considers development of a Government framework for purchasing green steel. The roadmap describes this as a longer-term market-development step rather than a currently prescribed requirement.

The policy gap leaves commercial uptake dependent on factors identified by the Ministry of Steel, including technology costs, renewable-energy availability, scrap availability and customers’ willingness to pay for lower-emission material. A certificate can provide a standardised environmental claim, but demand creation remains unresolved until buyers adopt the rating voluntarily or a future public-procurement mechanism creates a requirement.

What policies could lower India’s steel emissions and support demand?

India’s green-steel approach combines certification with technology, energy and circularity measures intended to reduce emissions intensity. The Greening the Steel Sector in India roadmap covers energy efficiency, renewable energy, green hydrogen, increased scrap use, material efficiency, alternative reductants and carbon capture, utilisation and storage, or CCUS. These measures affect whether plants can reduce emissions sufficiently to move below the 2.2 t-CO₂e/tfs eligibility threshold.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission includes Rs 455 crore for low-carbon steel pilot projects up to FY2029-30. The Ministry of Steel has awarded pilot projects for applications including hydrogen-based direct reduced iron, or DRI, production and hydrogen injection in blast furnaces. These pilots are intended to demonstrate technical feasibility, while commercial deployment will depend on the availability and cost of the required technologies and energy inputs.

The CCTS adds an emissions-intensity compliance mechanism for designated energy-intensive entities and provides Carbon Credit Certificates to entities that outperform assigned targets. Separately, the Steel Scrap Recycling Policy supports organised collection, processing and recycling of ferrous scrap. Greater scrap use can reduce energy and emissions intensity in relevant production routes, particularly secondary steelmaking, although green-rating eligibility continues to depend on the taxonomy’s measured emissions result.

Conclusion

India has established a defined green-steel classification, a verification mechanism and a growing certified base of 89 units covering about 12.34 million tonnes by 31 March 2026. The framework distinguishes emissions performance from BIS product compliance and makes plant-level environmental claims more comparable, but certification does not itself require Government agencies to purchase rated steel.

The next point to watch is whether the Ministry of Steel converts its examination of a Green Steel Public Procurement Policy into a rule with procurement targets, monitoring and compliance provisions. The three-year review cycle for star-rating thresholds, Rs 455 crore of hydrogen-based steel pilot support through FY2029-30, and the CCTS emissions-intensity mechanism could also affect the future volume and rating mix of certified steel.