‘Help Decarbonize Shipping Industry,’ Getting to Zero Coalition Demands

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A new coalition of companies and organizations concerned about climate change’s impact on the shipping industry is calling on governments to approve policies and investments that will help decarbonize shipping.

The Getting to Zero Coalition is made up of 140 industry leaders from 32 different maritime nations representing the entire maritime value chain, including shipping, cargo, energy, finance, ports, and infrastructure. Members include BP, Cargill, Maersk, Carnival Corporation, Citi, Daewoo, Shell, and Volvo.

The coalition’s overarching goal is to achieve industry-wide carbon neutrality by 2050. To this end, it is urging world leaders to:

• Deliver a clear and equitable implementation plan when adopting the International Maritime Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Strategy in 2023.
• Support industrial scale zero emission shipping projects through national action, for instance by setting clear decarbonization targets for domestic shipping and by providing incentives and support to first movers and broader deployment of zero emissions fuels and vessels.
• Deliver policy measures that will make zero emissions the default choice by 2030, including meaningful market-based measures, taking effect by 2025 that can support the commercial deployment of zero emission vessels and fuels in international shipping.

Many signatories have already undertaken their own decarbonization initiatives. Maersk, for instance, recently announced plans to add a new carbon-neutral fleet to its operations.

It is in the industry’s economic interest to help combat climate change, which according to Shipping and Freight Resource may, if left unchecked:

• Damage ports from storms and sea-level rise.
• Decrease productivity by interrupting normal operations with extreme weather events.
• Disrupt shipping routes, forcing companies to undergo costly rerouting.
• Increase operating costs, such as refrigeration from higher temperatures.
• Make it harder to grow crops, risking decreased demand for shipping services.

Ships transport around 80% of global trade and account for about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, that number is expected to increase to 10%.