Shell and Deloitte published this week joint research outlining industry perspectives on decarbonising the shipping sector. The ‘Decarbonising Shipping: All Hands on Deck’ report sets out the views of senior shipping executives from across the sector across Europe, Asia and North America and presents a roadmap of solutions to help the industry meet the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) ambition to reduce carbon emissions. IAPH Managing Director Patrick Verhoeven was among the interviewed executives. The roadmap prioritises five solutions to be implemented over the next two to three years that could speed up progress: (1) Scale up customer demand: create scale in demand for zero-emission shipping through charterer’s commitments such as long-term contracts and green procurement criteria, (2) Global regulatory alignment: create a level playing field by aligning decarbonisation targets and timelines between the IMO and major local regulatory bodies, (3) Cross-sector R&D: accelerate company partnering to develop a zero or low-emission fuel through joint research and development (R&D) across shipping, onshore sectors in which change is hard to achieve and the energy industry, (4) Scale up controlled pilot projects: accelerate R&D by running end-to-end green pilot projects involving charterers, operators, owners and ports on specific routes and vessel types and (5) Coordinated industry commitment: increase the reach of existing initiatives and implement independent coordination mechanisms to choreograph action and areas of responsibility. In addition, operational efficiency is identified as the foundation for the transition process, enabling reduced emissions from the current fleet through accelerated implementation of operational measures. This includes fuel and lubricant quality, digitalisation, and the use of data and smart navigation strategies.
You can download the ‘Decarbonising Shipping: All Hands on Deck’ report from the Shell website. The video below gives a brief introduction. The report is part of a wider project of collaboration between Shell and Deloitte to look at other hard-to-abate sectors and explore views on barriers to decarbonisation, and potential solutions.
