Because many of the technologies key to decarbonizing the nation’s industries by midcentury don’t exist on a commercial scale yet, the Biden administration is trying something previous peacetime governments may not have dared: organizing industries and their prospective customers to create demand for carbon-free energy and services.

The administration announced the First Movers Coalition in November 2021, at the start of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Described by the Atlantic Council as a partnership between the U.S. departments of State, Commerce and Energy and the World Economic Forum, the effort drew immediate support from 34 founding member companies focusing on aviation, shipping, steel and trucking.

On Tuesday, the Atlantic Council hosted representatives of two of those companies, Ørsted and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL), for a discussion about their goals and how they see First Movers enabling them to meet those targets. Also in the forum was a State Department representative key to keeping the overall goals in view.

“You’re trying to bring these decarbonization technologies to market by creating market demand. How is it working? Are you pleased with the progress so far?” asked moderator David Goldwyn, an Atlantic Council senior fellow.

Pamela Venzke, head of corporate affairs for Ørsted North American Offshore, said the company quickly realized the coalition “could lead to the clean energy future we wanted to build.”

“We’re well on our way, internally, for our portfolio being net zero by 2025. We can do that; we can make that decision ourselves. Decarbonizing our supply chain? That is a really big challenge, and it’s not something that we can do alone,” she said.

Calling First Movers “a roadmap,” Venzke said 50% of the “life cycle emissions of a wind farm come from steel. That’s a substantial number.

“What can we do to correct that? We are working right now with our supply chain partners to look at near-term incremental changes … greater efficiency in production [and] recycled steel,” she explained. “But what doesn’t exist today is net-zero or even near-zero steel for the steel plate market that we need for the offshore wind industry.”

That led the company to begin investing in green fuels, an entirely new business for Ørsted. “We have created a new business around e-fuels. We have announced a partnership with Maersk to do green fuels for the shipping industry. That also plays with an opportunity with the steel industry.”

She explained that the company has a tentative agreement with a European steel producer, which she did not name, to provide it with power generated with a low-carbon or carbon-free e-fuel.

“Then we do a green steel purchase from them. So, it’s kind of a circular approach that we feel really good about,” she said.

Asked how much the green steel would add to the price of power produced by the company’s offshore wind farms, Venzke said the price differential would be about 5% more compared to using steel produced by conventionally produced energy.

“But first there is a huge investment that needs to happen to build out these product lines,” she added. And that’s one area that the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is already looking at.

“You know, if we want a U.S. supply chain in this area, we do need assistance in getting that started. And we have had [talked to] people within this administration that are ready to go and ready to help. It’s going to be really important, not just for steel, but across the board,” she said.

Lauren Riley, managing director of global environmental affairs and sustainability for United, said that in aviation, clean fuels such as biofuels, which the company is already testing, are two to four times the cost of fossil fuels.

“We spend a lot of time talking with our corporate customers. They are staring at their emissions, which are by and large from business travel, or were prior to the pandemic; and they don’t know how to partner with us to really effect permanent change. They have been true advocates to really push the industry forward faster,” she said.

“We recognize that we have a crisis looming. We do impact the temperature rise on this planet. We are a hard-to-abate industry. We take responsibility for that. We are going to continue to invest so that one day we can fly hopefully no-carbon, but certainly low-carbon,” she said.

Moderator Goldwyn noted that there are many steelmakers and many airline companies.

“How do First Movers propagate this information about developments that are happening in one space around the world? What’s next, in terms of the coalition, for driving this, driving all these industries forward toward decarbonization?”

Varun Sivaram, senior director for clean energy and innovation for U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, explained a little of what the administration is doing to foster greater communication among First Mover companies in the U.S. and globally.

“We try and keep an open line of communication. We’re now going to launch the sectoral-focused workshops so that companies that have made the aviation commitment [like] United can talk to your customers.

“Apple has also made the commitment, and you guys can share both lessons and strategize on how you’re going to get the cost of these premium products down a little bit,” he added.

“We’ve tried to set up an infrastructure that allows for information sharing within the U.S. but also with our global set of companies.

“The hope is that we’ll keep this cadence up. We’ll have annual reporting that comes out at the end of this year and going forward, and our companies will form a community committed to realizing the advanced market commitment,” he said.