Decarbonizing iron and steel production in emerging industrial regions depends not only on the availability of low-carbon technologies but also on the institutional, market, and governance conditions that enable their deployment. Despite increasing global attention to industrial decarbonization, Latin America remains underexamined, even as its steel sector faces mounting pressures from trade exposure, infrastructure constraints, and uneven policy capacity. This article develops a comparative sociotechnical assessment of decarbonization strategies, implementation barriers, and policy instruments shaping the transition to low-carbon steel production across the region's major producers. The study combines a benchmarking analysis of production structures, emissions performance, and energy configurations with a systematic review of scientific and gray literature. This approach situates technological pathways within the political economy contexts that condition their feasibility. The findings indicate that while a diverse portfolio of mitigation options exists, including electrification, expansion of scrap-based production, alternative reducing agents, and carbon management technologies, their deployment is constrained by fragmented regulatory environments, limited Monitoring, Reporting and Verification capacity, weak policy credibility, and territorial and asymmetries that affect investment incentives and workforce transitions. The analysis further shows that the effectiveness of policy instruments depends less on formal adoption than on the institutional conditions under which they operate. By demonstrating how sociotechnical factors mediate the translation of global decarbonization roadmaps into regionally viable transition pathways, the study contributes comparative evidence on the governance challenges of industrial decarbonization in emerging economies. • Institutional and policy capacity, rather than technology availability, constrain steel decarbonization in Latin America. • Uneven MRV readiness limits participation in low-carbon steel markets and weakens carbon pricing effectiveness. • Scrap-based EAF expansion offers near-term mitigation but is structurally constrained by supply and grid conditions. • Fragmented governance landscapes hinder coordinated sectoral roadmaps and shape heterogeneous transition trajectories.
Camargo-Bertel et al. (Thu,) studied this question.