This year will be an exciting one for Wartsila as enabling the use of sustainable fuels will continue at a high pace.

This will include the further refinement of our gas-engine portfolio, implementing technology for running on methanol and the continued development of the technology for running on ammonia and hydrogen.

Our developments will put customer and industry needs at the forefront — enabling a high degree of fuel flexibility and allowing owners to reduce the risk of stranded assets.

We will continue to work on introducing technology that increases vessel efficiency now, prior to zero-carbon fuels being available. Energy-saving devices, optimised operation and innovative ship-propulsion systems are the name of the game here.

We see great opportunity to further decarbonise through optimising maintenance with our performance-based agreements. We have maximised revenue for customers and lowered emissions through optimising and guaranteeing asset performance.

Tackling greenhouse gas in the year ahead

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.

Click here to read the full report.

I hope we see solid progress at the International Maritime Organization on the legislative framework that governs shipping. Although the direction is clear and consensus is growing that we need to achieve net-zero emissions for the global fleet around 2050, actual modalities of the legislation are far from clear and agreed.

A lot of momentum is building around decarbonisation, but we need a clear set of rules to really get this going on a large scale.

Aside from legislation for shipping specifically, I see it as important to put more focus on getting a holistic view of energy systems, highlighting possibilities for sectoral integration, for instance between renewable energy generation, energy storage — both short and long term — and the creation of synthetic fuels for transportation.

And a little more tangible: I really want to see a significant amount of announced pilot projects moving forward with transparency. These will show the industry what can be done with today’s technology and those available in the near future.

The more opportunity we share and jointly learn from, the faster the up-take of these technologies will be.

This year will be one of collaboration, development and demonstration. Let’s pull together as an industry and get this done.