How the World's Largest Shipping Company Plans to Reduce Its Emissions

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By Stéphane Amant, Senior Manager in charge of the Mobility Division

For several months now, following announcements by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of its intention to cut emissions in the sector by half by 2050, the world’s leading shipping company, Maersk, has been making a series of announcements aimed at demonstrating its commitment and determination to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Among these, a recent highlight is a full-scale test covering 25,000 nautical miles between Rotterdam and Shanghai, using a fuel containing 20% biofuel derived from used cooking oil and supplied by Shell. Let’s take this experiment as an opportunity to recall that the maritime sector, responsible for approximately 2 to 3% of global CO₂ emissions (which is a significant amount, even if the percentage may seem low— that’s roughly equivalent to Germany’s emissions!), has significant potential for reduction through (i) energy efficiency (propulsion systems and ship hull designs) and (ii) the use of lower-carbon energy sources.

Among these, biofuels are natural candidates. It is important to keep in mind, however, that there are many different types, and their environmental benefits vary depending on the feedstock, cultivation methods, production processes, geography, and so on. Moreover, their potential varies greatly, and in this case is clearly insufficient to meet current and future needs 100%. Biofuels are certainly one option, but they are far from being the only one. In fact, decarbonizing maritime transport could also involve, in the future, electric batteries (for short distances and modest capacities, such as ferries for passenger transport), hydrogen, and… ammonia [2]. This last option is less well known to the general public but is being viewed with interest by the maritime community (particularly in Japan). And why not synthetic fuels such as “electrofuels” in the future? We will undoubtedly have the opportunity to revisit this topic in future newsletters, as we are at the very beginning of many developments in this sector.

Sources: [1] Maersk [2] Mission PossibleStéphane Amant, Senior Manager in charge of the Mobility Division