Efforts to accelerate international public-private collaboration to scale and deploy new green maritime solutions are setting international shipping on an ambitious zero-emission course, Guice Offshore noted this week with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) June 2, 2021 announcement on Mission Innovation, a program that will be supported by the governments of India, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Singapore, France, Ghana and South Korea, in addition to the United States.
The DOE announced that it will lead a new Zero-Emission Shipping Mission as part of Mission Innovation, joined also by the governments of Denmark, Norway, along with the Global Maritime Forum and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping,
“Through fearless technological innovation, ambitious clean energy deployment, and constructive international collaboration, we can build a net-zero carbon economy that creates millions of jobs and lifts our citizens into greater prosperity,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
Carrying 80 to 90 percent of global trade in a less carbon-intensive manner than other freight transport modes, international maritime shipping nonetheless represents about 2–3 percent of the world’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Without immediate and concerted efforts, emissions from the sector could increase between 50 percent and 250 percent by 2050.
The three main goals of the Zero-Emission Shipping Mission are:
- Develop, demonstrate, and deploy zero-emission fuels, ships, and fuel infrastructure in a coordinated fashion along the full value chain.
- By 2030, ships capable of running on hydrogen-based zero-emission fuels—such as green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol, and biofuels—make up at least 5 percent of the global deep-sea fleet measured by fuel consumption.
- By 2030, at least 200 of these well-to-wake zero-emission fueled ships are in service and utilizing these fuels across their main deep sea shipping routes.
The Zero-Emission Shipping Mission is part of Mission Innovation, a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission working to accelerate clean energy innovation. The objective is to help move clean energy solutions from lab to market. Mission Innovation was announced at COP21 on November 30, 2015, as world leaders came together in Paris to commit to ambitious efforts to combat climate change.
Learn more about Mission Innovation here: http://mission-innovation.net/missions/shipping/