Unlocking Asia-Pacific as a First Mover 2025

As reflected in the delayed rollout of Pilbara’s shared electricity transmission infrastructure above, participants cited the time and complexity involved in permissions and approvals as a key barrier to progress in developing infrastructure – in turn undermining investor confidence. Delays in approvals for large-scale wind and solar projects in New South Wales are also well-documented. “One-window” licensing Permissions are primarily a state government’s responsibility, although they can be overruled by federal ministries in exceptional circumstances. A simpler, swifter, more streamlined approvals process is needed at state level, for example via a “single window” model. There are promising signs. In South Australia, the government has embraced a “one window to government” approach, in which the licensing agency (e.g. Department for Energy and Mining), acts as the central point of coordination.106 In Western Australia, the government introduced legislation in September 2025 to streamline permitting processes for renewable energy generation, green iron and manufacturing projects. Some permitting power will be delegated to a co- ordinator general, who will work across agencies to support priority projects. WA government’s aim is to reduce the state’s reliance on coal faster than any other Australian state.107Expedited permissions and infrastructure approvals Aligning domestic low-carbon principles with export markets Trust is critical to the fledgling green iron industry. Participants identified third-party verification and international alignment of standards as the most critical mechanisms to build trust in early offtake agreements. Lack of consistency around existing standards and certifications for green steel is an ongoing challenge. Buyers are not clear which methodologies are being used to make “green claims” or what kinds of data these claims rest on. In the post-fossil economic model, getting the definition of “green” right is foundational. Clarity on this would help Australia export green iron to markets in Europe and East Asia. It is equally vital for investors. Previous polling highlighted that >80% of financiers felt “green iron” cannot be produced with fossil fuels – including gas. This reflects the poll of workshop participants that found just 16% backed natural gas-based DRI compared to 59% supporting green hydrogen-based DRI (see Figure 1). So proving the credibility of the low- carbon pathway matters. There is no shortage of principles developed by, among others, the International Standards Organization (ISO), Responsible Steel and World Steel. The challenge is a lack of consistency and interoperability across standards, for example on system boundaries for different product-level caluclations. Australian National University (ANU) has identified eight principles to guide the design of frameworks for tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in products and their supply chains, including iron and steel, known as the Embedded Emissions Accounting (EEA) principles. This work contributes to Australia’s efforts to align domestic and international climate and trade policies, including initiatives such as the Guarantee of Origin scheme.108 Meanwhile, energy feedstocks have not received much scrutiny in green certification frameworks. One solution voiced in the workshop was to move scrutiny of electricity production to hourly or half- hourly accounting. Book-and-claim models By decoupling environmental attributes from physical commodities, a producer can generate tradeable certificates for each tonne of clean commodity, while buyers can “book and claim” them even if the molecules don’t physically move. This idea formed a major recommendation in a recent report by The Superpower Institute, which encouraged the government to create a green hydrogen (GH2) certificate scheme so that producers of GH2 could earn certificates to trade with green iron producers anywhere in Australia. The report maintained that “iron produced with natural gas could be recognised as ‘green’ iron production when equivalent green hydrogen certificates are purchased and surrendered”.109 Participants at the workshop noted that export buyers interested in green attributes generally ask for full traceability of emissions, regardless of the accounting model. A lively debate then ensued on the best models. Proponents of the book-and- claim approach argued it could unlock bankable offtake. The government or another anchor buyer could contract for the clean attribute while the physical iron sells into conventional markets, helping overcome the green premium and lower financing costs through a viable offtaker. Clarity on green standards, certification and “book-and-claim” Unlocking Asia-Pacific as a First Mover: Australia’s Green Iron Opportunity 37