The "green" death of the UK iron and steel industry

Thousands of British workers are losing their livelihoods over the new climate policy adopted by David Cameron's government last year. As The Wall Street Journal writes today, the UK industry was shocked by the news of the closure of the Thai Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) of its Redcar plant in Teesside. Experts blame the government.

The fact is that last year, Cameron's cabinet practically shifted investment in green energy onto the shoulders of industry, including the corresponding costs in the tariff. At the same time, the most severely affected energy-intensive industries, which are difficult to transfer to other countries.

The first company that came under the blow of Cameron's "green" policy was the Indian Tata Steel, which began to actively close its factories in foggy Albion. Since last year, the Indians have been trying to sell their British steel business to anyone and it seems for any money, since one of the potential buyers of Tata assets in Britain is the American billionaire Gary Tick, known for buying factories on the cheap and cutting them into scrap metal. The British government silently watched these developments.

Among other things, the UK has had minimum CO2 prices since 2013, which are higher than anywhere else. At the same time, metallurgical companies are obliged to pay this tax in fact based on the results of the previous year on an advance payment. As a result of additional requirements and charges, UK steelworkers pay for greenhouse gas emissions 6 times more than the maximum rate in other EU countries.

As a result of the implementation of Cameron's new climate policy, the cost of a kilowatt of electricity increased by more than 50 percent. According to the WSJ, UK steel companies paid an average of 9.3 British pence per kilowatt hour of electricity in 2014, compared to the EU's average energy cost of 5 euros. At the same time, higher tariffs did not allow the full development of "green" energy, and additional revenues were dissolved in the country's budget.

The closure of the largest iron and steel plant, Redcar in Teesside, was the culmination of a green death policy for the UK steel industry. Since Tata Steel will most likely do the same in the near future, unless, of course, the British government wants to change the situation in favor of their country.

Interestingly, just last week, the Russian government came up with an idea to destroy the metallurgical industry according to the British scenario. At the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Dmitry Medvedev, the idea of ​​financing "green" energy at the expense of industrial consumers was announced. Speaking at the Sochi-2015 business forum, Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov criticized