APPEC 2023: Is the Shipping Industry Embracing Alternative Fuels?
The past few years have thrown an intense spotlight on shipping’s global role in emissions, and the industry faces a multitude of challenges in the years ahead as it moves toward net zero. The International Maritime Organization, the governing body, has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, and there indeed is a strong political will to phase them out as soon as possible.
The most ambitious of these targets is to reduce GHG emissions by 2050 at least 50 percent vs. 2008 levels, and there is also an intermediate target to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030. Cargo owners are looking to decarbonize their supply chains while shipping companies are in major a transition from conventional to climate-friendly carbon-neutral fuels, having placed early bets on green methanol, ammonia and bio-LNG, among others. The industry, however, will need to understand key drivers and implications of a new multi-fuel future.
Future fuel availability is also a new focus in S&P Global’s latest and significantly updated 2022 Maritime Forecast to 2050 report, which outlines under what conditions each new fuel type will proliferate. What will win — biofuels, e-fuels or fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage — remains uncertain, but we can say with confidence that the future fuel market will be more diverse than today and reliant on multiple primary energy sources. This session addressed the future fuel transition, what role does different stakeholders play in the shipping industry’s decarbonization, and how the industry collaboration can turn this multi-decade challenge into a business opportunity.
The session was moderated by Rahul Kapoor, Vice President, Global Head of Shipping Analytics & Research, Maritime & Trade, S&P Global Commodity Insights
Panel speakers:
Choong Sheen Mao, Director, Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services Pte Ltd
Kazuhiro Takahashi, Executive Officer – Green Marine Fuel & Tanker Business, MOL
Alex Grant, Senior Vice President for Crude, Products and Liquids, Equinor
New Wei Siang, Director (Decarbonisation & Net Zero Pathways), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)
See also: https://commodityinsights.spglobal.com/appec2023.html