Shipping may face a losing battle to score its share of renewable energy used in the production of zero-carbon fuels.
That is the view of Oistein Jensen, chief sustainability officer at Norwegian chemical tanker owner Odfjell.
“Shipping will require more than 50% of the available non-fossil electricity in the world to decarbonise,” he told a Sustainability Live London event, according to the Offshore Energy website.
In 2020, non-fossil electricity production hit 10,000 terawatt hours. Estimates show that shipping, which accounts for around 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, would require 5,400 terawatt hours.
Jensen said the key issue is where to move the renewable energy to achieve the biggest reduction in global emissions.
“The answer is not shipping, and that is a challenge for us, being a hard-to-abate sector,” he said.
“That means that we will compete heavily for alternative fuels and renewable energy.”
Other industrial sectors have a more compelling case for using the energy, it seems.
Putting renewable energy into electric cars would result in a nine-times greater reduction of CO2 emissions than using it to produce fuel for ships, the event was told.
Jensen also said it is vital that the cost gap between alternative fuels and fossil fuels is reduced through policy efforts.
“As long as shipping can have an alternative that is cheaper, it will choose that alternative due to the global character of this business,” he said.
“That is why we need policies to implement market-based measures to ensure that alternative fuel is on the equal scale as a fossil fuel.”
Odfjell is not betting on one future fuel and is focusing on what it can control itself, he added.
