Decarbonisation of shipping is a global challenge. It is also a responsibility we must all take upon ourselves, and we must collaboratively find solutions to quickly reduce — and eventually avoid — the use of fossil fuels.
This article is one of more than three dozen contributions from shipping industry stakeholders about their outlook for decarbonisation efforts in the year ahead. We asked shipowners, managers, financial professionals, technology providers and more about their own efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 and what they hope to happen in the industry this year.
At E&S Tankers, our ambition is to be an enabler for not only decarbonisation but wider sustainability impact. Working strategically with sustainability, we are taking a holistic approach where decarbonisation and climate change are joined by other targets related to ocean health, lifecycle issues, environmental, social and governance (ESG) financing, and our employees and partners.
As a group, we have signed shipping’s Call to Action. It goes without saying that, first and foremost, we have to make our vessels as energy-efficient as possible. Wind-assisted propulsion is evidently an interesting avenue, despite the challenges specific to shorter sea and tramp routes.
We look forward to taking delivery of LNG-fuelled newbuildings from 2023. These state-of-the-art vessels will be future-fuels-ready and represent an improvement in terms of CO2 emissions and particulate matter — an important aspect when operating in higher latitudes.
We transport a wide variety of chemicals, offering our customers parcel deliveries. This requires effective network utilisation to limit the need for ballasting, which is something we believe we are good at. Effective network utilisation has a high impact on your carbon footprint per cargo carried. This works by both reducing energy wasted in avoidable ballast transfer and eliminating unnecessary ballast carriage.
Our carbon footprint is also our customers’ Scope 3 footprint. This lever helps us explore mutual synergies and risk-sharing for carbon reduction. Therefore, we are looking into how we can impact infrastructural development, such as access to electrical power in ports, or green corridors for alternative fuels.
We believe there are untapped opportunities to accelerate the energy transition through closer collaboration with the industries using our services, the chemicals industry and the special fuels industry. Earlier examples of fuel transition, such as with LNG, have shown the starting point is most often local, using local synergies and strongholds. We need to identify these synergies faster and have the guts to take action towards real decarbonisation.
Despite the difficulty shipowners have with uncertainty and cost with respect to alternative fuels, we must all push ahead and particularly work together to inform enabling policy. The pace of transition increases daily and we expect to see the S curve really lift off without any doubt during 2022. We see it as our responsibility to try to lead that curve.
