The European steel industry is the cleanest of its kind in the world, with a long and successful record of environmental innovation to ensure that its operations affect the environment as minimally as possible. This is an ongoing effort, one that the whole sector works to constantly improve on.

In EU usage, the term 'Industrial emissions' is not a reference to greenhouse gases like CO2. Rather, it describes other key pollutants - such as nitrogen and sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide and particulates.

The size and share of industrial emissions from industrial installations has been a long term concern, and there is a long history of legislation controlling it, all with the objective of reducing pollution. The European Union has had environmental pollutant legislation on the statute since at least the late 1970s.

This legislation is constantly updated in line with the evolving need to protect the environment. This is especially the case at EU level, with the following main pieces of legislation of essence for the European steel industry:

• Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions (IED): on permission for, and control of, large industrial installations. This is based on an integrated approach and the use of Best Available Techniques (BAT). BATs are effective techniques to help keep high environmental protection standards, factoring in technical feasibility, costs and benefits.
• Directive (EU) 2015/2193 on medium combustion plants (MCPD): The MCPD is a regulation that applies to the emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates from the combustion of fuels in plants with a rated thermal input of between 1 and 50 MW.
• Regulation 166/2006 on the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register: This is a register with detailed information on the emissions, the off-site transfers of pollutants, and waste, from around 30,000 industrial facilities.