Liner giant AP Moller-Maersk announced on Wednesday it plans to become a climate-neutral company by 2040, 10 years earlier than its previous target.

To prove it is serious about this ambition, the company also unveiled a set of interim, medium-term emission targets for 2030 that include slashing the greenhouse gas emission intensity of its oceangoing fleet by half from 2020 levels.

Emissions per transported container in the Maersk Ocean fleet should go down by 50% over the period.

The announcement by the world's biggest public company by market capitalisation is likely to increase public pressure on governments and the International Maritime Organization to step up their own anti-global warming targets.

Maersk's move partly reflects such pressures.

“These very ambitious targets mark our commitment to society and to the many customers who call for net-zero supply chains,” Soren Skou, Maersk’s chief executive said in a statement.

Other interim 2030 targets include a 70% absolute reduction from 2020 levels of greenhouse gas emissions from terminals under full Maersk control.

The aft of the new Maersk methanol container ship design. The funnel is placed to one side to maximise cargo space. Photo: AP Moller-Maersk

Furthermore, Maersk said it plans to build by the end of the ongoing decade a portfolio that generates around five million tonnes in annual CO2 savings, in order to go “above and beyond” targets set by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce global warming by 1.5°C.

“Our updated targets and accelerated timelines reflect a very challenging, yet viable pathway to net zero which is driven by advances in technology and solutions,” said Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, chief executive of Fleet & Strategic Brands at Maersk.

"What is needed is a rapid scale-up which we will strive to achieve in close collaboration with customers and suppliers across the entire supply chain," Hallberg Thygesen added.

To achieve that, Maersk plans to make headway with a string of green solutions, on top of its existing Emissions Dashboard and Maersk ECO Delivery tools, to cover both seaborne and airborne transport, as well as warehouses, depots, inland transport services and shipbuilding.

"Tackling this challenge will require extensive data insights and close collaboration with local and regional suppliers of products and services across the Maersk business footprint," the company said.

In terms of specific targets for 2030, Maersk wants a quarter of all its oceangoing cargo to be transported using green fuels. It defines 'green' as fuels or energy with "low or very low greenhouse gas emissions on a life-cycle basis".

Over the same time frame, Maersk plans to use sustainable aviation fuels to carry at least 30% of all its airborne cargo.

In its warehouses, depots and across its 'cold chain' the green operations target even climbs to 90%. But that excludes so-called 'Scope 3' activities from suppliers and other external service and goods providers.

A specific target for inland transportation is to be announced within this year.

Heavy on methanol

Maersk already has given an indication of how it intends to start achieving these targets.

At the end of November, it launched its first 'green' bond with a €500m ($568m at current exchange rates) issue to help fund the construction of a series of carbon-neutral ships.

The company said the bond was just the opening move in a wider new green finance framework to fund projects that will have a “positive environmental impact”, contributing to the fight against global warming and to Maersk becoming carbon neutral.

Earlier this month, Maersk boosted its emerging methanol dual-fuelled, neo-panamax container ship newbuilding fleet to 12 vessels, by declaring four optional slots that it was holding at South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries.

The AP Moller Foundation — the Moller family institution that has a controlling stake in AP Moller-Maersk – has also donated DKK 400m ($61.1m) to help set up the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, an independent research outfit formed to speed up shipping's decarbonisation.