What is APA?
APA (Asset-based Planning Approach) is David Kampmann's methodology from his 2024 paper for calculating company-level emissions projections based on physical asset data.
Instead of relying on corporate targets or intensity benchmarks, APA models emissions from the bottom up using actual plant-level data: which plants exist, what technology they use, where they are located, and how much they produce.
Core Calculation
Plant Emissions = Allocated Production × Emission Factor
= (Plant Capacity / Total Company Capacity) × Company Production × EF(country, technology, year)
Company Emissions = Sum of all plant emissions under that ownership
The utilisation rate distributes reported production across plants proportionally to their capacity share.
Steel APA Implementation
Data Source: GEM GIST December 2025
Three standalone Excel files from the Global Energy Monitor's Global Iron and Steel Tracker, covering 800+ plant-status entries:
- • Plant-level data — plant_id, country, parent, owner, status, start_year
- • Iron unit data — BF and DRI unit capacities (technology, capacity_ttpa)
- • Steel unit data — BOF and EAF unit capacities (technology, capacity_ttpa)
26 Companies Tracked
The original 14 companies from Kampmann's paper plus 12 expanded companies, resulting in 229 company-year APA pairs covering 2014–2024.
Emission Factors
Based on Koolen & Vidovic (2022) JRC129297 — country-specific emission factors for the steel industry and its trading partners.
BF-BOF (Scope 1 + Upstream)
Country-specific, time-varying with 0.5%/year compound improvement from 2020 reference:
| Region | Base EF (2020) | 2014 EF | 2024 EF |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU | 1.770 | 1.824 | 1.735 |
| China | 1.760 | 1.814 | 1.725 |
| India | 3.720 | 3.834 | 3.646 |
| Japan | 2.050 | 2.113 | 2.009 |
| United States | 1.940 | 1.999 | 1.902 |
| Brazil | 2.190 | 2.257 | 2.147 |
| South Korea | 2.000 | 2.061 | 1.960 |
| Russia | 2.790 | 2.875 | 2.735 |
| Global (fallback) | 2.314 | 2.385 | 2.268 |
Rationale: Worldsteel Sustainability Indicators show global BF-BOF intensity is largely flat over 2014-2024 (<5% total change). IEA assumes 0.3-0.7% annual improvement. We use 0.5% as a middle estimate.
EAF (Scope 1 only) — Static
EAF scope 1 emissions are very small (0.02-0.12 tCO2/t) and kept constant across all years.
DRI — Static (technology-specific)
Coal-based DRI: 3.10 tCO2/t (India, China, South Africa). Gas-based DRI: 1.05 tCO2/t (all others). Hydrogen DRI: 0.04 tCO2/t (future technology).
Production Data Hierarchy
Five sources, prioritised (lower number = higher priority):
| Priority | Source | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Kampmann BAU (reported) | 14 companies, 2020-2023 |
| 1 | Annual report extraction | Varies by company |
| 2 | Curated reports CSV | 26 companies, 2014-2024 |
| 3 | Kampmann ALD data | 14 companies, 2020-2023 |
| 4 | GEM plant production | Variable (50% coverage floor) |
Year-Specific Plant Filtering
Plants are filtered per year based on GEM status and start_year, meaning the plant set changes over time. New plants come online and the technology mix shifts — this is the first-order effect on weighted emission factors.
| Status | Rule |
|---|---|
| Operating / Pre-retirement | Include if start_year ≤ year |
| Construction | Include if start_year ≤ year (came online) |
| Retired / Mothballed | Include for all historical years |
| Announced / Cancelled | Always exclude |
What APA Is Not
APA is purely: Assets → Emission Factors → Baseline Emissions, driven by physical plant data and reported production.