Tempers run high at interview with Tata Steel chief
Tata Steel could have started greening earlier, indicates top executive Hans van den Berg at Room for Discussion. The conversation was disrupted by three protesters. “I hope you will be tried.”
Let’s start the conversation differently than usual, suggests Room for Discussion interviewer Koen Blaauw. “There are many people who want you gone,” he tells Hans van den Berg. “So why should Tata Steel stay?” The tone is set: Tata Steel’s chairman of the board hasn’t come to REC E for a casual chat and must immediately go on the defensive.
Hans van den Berg points to the steel construction on the ceiling. Van den Berg points to the steel structures in the room and says, “Steel is everywhere. We sit here under steel, we wash in steel, we drive in steel: the whole society is built on steel.” And at Tata Steel, we make high-quality steel, he says, followed by a small sneer: “Not like the steel in this room.”
Black tulip
After only nine minutes, interviewer Blaauw’s opening remarks turn out to be in earnest. Suddenly, a protester steps onto the stage, holding a black tulip. “What should be done so that the most polluting company in the Netherlands stops polluting?’ she says sarcastically. “Very simple: stop polluting! We demand that you take responsibility.” She hands the flower to Van den Berg; as many as 10 security guards crowd around to inspect it.
Two other demonstrators follow her and show a banner to the hundred or so people present, depicting the polluting Tata Steel IJmuiden factory on the one hand and a green lawn with yellow tulips on the other, presented as “the ideal future.” Throughout the conversation, they remained off to the side.
Room for Discussion organizers said they feared demonstrations in advance. A week and a half ago, former Shell chief Jeroen van der Veer decided to cancel the Room for Discussion talk. He had received threats and called the discussion climate at the UvA “not conducive to a fruitful conversation.”
Like oil company Shell, Tata Steel has long been under scrutiny at the UvA and elsewhere. Literally even, as it turned out late last month, when it was announced that the environmental department is aiming a camera at Tata Steel to identify possible violations. A unique case, reported NRC: “No other cases are known of governments pointing a camera at companies.”
Harmful substances
Van den Berg has filed a lawsuit against the government. He does not want his employees to be recognizable on cameras, he tells Room for Discussion. On Wednesday comes the statement by the judge. “Of course, we want to be critically observed, but not like that.”
The RIVM also recently shed light on the steel company and came up with alarming findings. More harmful substances, such as high concentrations of lead, were found near Tata Steel IJmuiden in 2022 than in the rest of the Netherlands. This was despite commitments by Tata Steel to significantly reduce these concentrations.
Van den Berg feels responsible for this, he indicated to Room for Discussion, and says he is doing everything possible to reduce CO2 emissions and harmful substances, which increase the risk of lung cancer, among other things, as quickly as possible. But is he also willing to compensate residents of the Tata Steel plant who have contracted lung cancer? “I find that a difficult question,’ Van den Berg replies. ‘After all, the question is exactly how much influence our company has on that, and I don't know how we could determine that.”
Prosecution
Then comes a tough question from a law student in the audience: “I hope that Tata Steel closes its doors and you are tried criminally. Do you understand that?”
To some degree, Van den Berg responds rather understandingly. “That's not something I like to hear. Countless people work at our company and we make a product that gives people a roof over their heads, for example,” he explains. “But I also understand the impatience.” He points out that Tata Steel could have started certain circular greening programs earlier and did not have timely and appropriate discussions with local residents. “I hope we have reached the bottom of the valley.”
Change for Europe and thus Tata Steel
He believes that the Netherlands must lead the way in tackling the climate crisis. Van den Berg says: “The world cannot wait. Climate change is here, and where better to lead that transition than in Europe?”
Demonstrations by climate activists, such as today’s, help build momentum, he believes. So he finds it reprehensible that some of his employees said earlier that climate activists should be driven out. “They shouldn’t have said that. But on the other hand, our employees are being called Nazis, among other things. That can't be the intention, either.”
