To start 2023, TradeWinds reporters fanned out across the maritime landscape to find out how industry stakeholders would spend a hypothetical $1bn fund aimed at investing in a sustainable, profitable and resilient future for shipping.
We also asked a bonus question: Which one policy or regulation would you like to implement from 1 January 2023 to benefit shipping?
Not everyone wanted the extra credit, but here are some of the answers that caught our attention:
1. Impose a zero-emission fuel standard
Pacific Environment climate campaign director Madeline Rose was not being hypothetical when she told us that she wants to see a zero-emissions fuel standard for shipping that would ratchet down greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2040.
Her group, a US environmental NGO, is already asking the governor of California and President Joe Biden to start working on just such a measure.
“However, given the urgency of the climate crisis, the massive amount of new newbuildings in the global orderbook and the long lifespan of vessels, we really need mandatory, market-forcing zero-emission regulations on the books today,” she wrote.
2. Fossil fuels ban
Khalid Hashim went a step further with our regulatory magic wand.
The managing director of bulker owner Precious Shipping said the International Maritime Organization should ban delivery of fossil fuel-burning newbuildings at the start of 2030 or even earlier.
And older ships should pushed into the scrapyards by that time.
“These hard deadlines would focus the collective minds of shipyards, engine makers, regulators, zero-emission fuel suppliers and their entire land/sea supply chain, and shipowners on the choice of fuel for the future zero-emission vessels,” he wrote.
3. Cap on vessel speed
Eva Tzima, Seaborne Shipbrokers’ head of research, wants slow steaming codified as a medium-term solution.
“The policy I would want to see implemented is an official cap on speed, after further improvements to the Carbon Intensity Indicator have taken place, which would offer an intermediate solution for sustainability and would obviously help with shipping profitability,” she wrote.
4. Monitoring GHGs
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation would like to see a global regulatory framework that encourages accurate measuring and monitoring of GHG emissions, chief executive Lynn Loo told us.
“To the extent possible, these frameworks should consider emissions on a life-cycle basis so that upstream and embedded emissions are accounted for,” she said.
“These regulations would form the bedrock of and increase stakeholder confidence in the implementation of any global carbon-pricing schemes to come.”
5. Price on carbon
In addition to more than 50 stakeholders, TradeWinds reporter Bob Rust put our question to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot by OpenAI.
Its answer was reasonable, though not groundbreaking, given that it is already under consideration by the International Maritime Organization and has been adopted by the European Union.
The chatbot said one solution would be to put a price on carbon emissions.
“This would create an economic incentive for companies to reduce their emissions, and could help to drive the transition to more sustainable shipping practices,” ChatGPT said.
“Another option could be to establish mandatory targets for reducing emissions from the shipping industry, similar to the targets that have already been established in other sectors such as power generation and transportation.”
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More on the environment and the business of the ocean
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Podcast: Did the IMO 2020 sulphur cap make shipping’s carbon footprint worse?
Ahead of the three-year anniversary of the IMO’s strict cap on sulphur emissions, the audio edition of Green Seas explored claims by some in shipping that the regulation may have represented a step back for cutting carbon.
International Council on Clean Transportation researcher Bryan Comer explains why that’s not the case.
And he says the IMO 2020 regulation’s relatively smooth roll-out showed that change is possible.
Click here to listen, or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, Spotify or SoundCloud.
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Priciest US offshore wind plot in spotlight as RWE and National Grid survey their $1bn prize
Tim Ferry of our sister publication Recharge has explored efforts to make the most expensive offshore wind lease in US waters less costly.
RWE and National Grid have started work on their Community Offshore Wind project that they say will be crucial in helping shave costs off the power generated there.
The joint venture of the German power company and UK grid operator paid $1.1bn for a 126,000-acre (51,000-hectare) parcel in the New York Bight last February.
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Solstad Offshore claims 29% fuel saving on long PSV transit
Solstad Offshore claims to have achieved a 29% fuel saving by one of its platform support vessels during a transit from Australia, TradeWinds’ Dale Wainwright reported.
The savings were reportedly achieved by the 6,164-dwt Normand Leader (built 2013), which had just come off charter from Australian gas producer Woodside.
“Over the last weeks, we have worked with our partner VPS Decarbonisation to use data analytics to save as much fuel and emissions as possible during a vessel’s long transit,” said Solstad Offshore.
