Why shipping should be training for an ultra-marathon
Listen to the latest edition of the Lloyd’s List’s weekly podcast — your free weekly briefing on the stories shaping shipping
Lloyd’s List’s editor-in-chief Richard Meade takes a more practical look at shipping’s alternative fuel future, and highlights the scale of the decarbonisation mountain the industry is gearing up to climb
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage for more information.
THERE is a very detailed series of policy discussions happening right now inside the walls of the International Maritime Organization.
The question of whether the IMO can stick to its timetable and agree the basic architecture of shipping’s energy transition via a fuel standard and some kind of levy is of course important. It’s important in terms of demand signals to fuels producers, regulatory certainty for an industry in limbo, but it’s also going to determine whether we continue to have global regulation for shipping.
If what the IMO agrees is not ambitious enough, shipping still faces the likely proliferation of national and regional bloc legislations to come.
But what gets agreed inside the Marine Environment Protection Committee, is not the final step of shipping’s decarbonisation journey. It’s not even the starter.
There’s a long list of practical and political factors for shipping to consider beyond an IMO discussion, and the industry needs to be preparing itself for a gruelling series of changes over many years.
The bigger picture is that shipping is still not yet fully on the radar of the wider energy transition discussions like the Global African Hydrogen Summit that took place in Namibia last month.
There are still a lot of dots to be joined between government, ports, fuel suppliers and shipping as one of many industries in the queue for green fuels.
The industry is entering a phase that requires different approaches to its understanding of fuels supply and procurement and the coming regulation.
The cliché “it’s a marathon not a sprint” is overused.
But shipping is facing a decarbonisation ultra-marathon, and it needs to start training now.
Joining Richard on the podcast this week are:
-
Lara Naqushbandi, chief executive, ET Fuels
-
Andrea Olivi, head of wet freight, Trafigura
-
Ahila Karan, Maritime Decarbonisation Hub’s senior lead on green initiatives, Lloyd’s Register