LA-Long Beach-Shanghai Green Shipping Corridor achieves phase one milestones

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Shanghai Green Shipping Corridor, the first partnership of its kind across the Pacific, reached a new milestone on Monday (20 October).

The LA-LB-SH Green Shipping Corridor (GSC), facilitated by C40 Cities, has successfully delivered on its phase 1 milestones, including the expansion of shore power infrastructure to meet 100% electrification serving container vessels, deploying reduced lifecycle carbon-capable vessels, and scaling sustainable fuel bunkering operations.

The corridor partners presented their second Annual Progress Report at the North Bund International Shipping Forum 2025 on 20 October. 

The report highlighted the significant progress made by the Partnership since the launch of the GSC, specifically over the past year, and outlines the steps planned to achieve future milestones, including demonstrating the feasibility of deploying zero lifecycle carbon emission container ships by 2030.

In March 2025, partners gathered at the Port of Long Beach for the second in-person meeting, in which the corridor partners reaffirmed their consensus on the corridor goals, further detailed additional actions for addressing challenges, and launched a fourth working group to focus on Metrics and Evaluation.

Along with the other dedicated working groups – Energy Supply, Carriers, and Ports– the partners continue to make progress towards their respective missions:

Ports Working Group

• Expanded shore power infrastructure to reach 100% capability in Shanghai, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, cutting emissions while ships are docked and improving air quality for local communities. The Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports completed the installation of shore power to meet earlier mandated State regulations.
• Bunkered more than 47,000 metric tonnes (mt) of green methanol at the Port of Shanghai, and realised China’s first linkage for domestically produced green methanol. Ports of LA and Long Beach are preparing for a methanol pilot project. 
• Commissioned a Clean Fuels Study for POLA/POLB and prepared for a clean marine fuel pilot project.

Building on the successful completion of Phase One milestone targets, the partners will continue to tackle significant challenges in 2026 and beyond:

• Addressing the future of clean marine fuels due to the shifting regulatory, permitting, and policy landscape, such as the IMO’s Net Zero Framework.
• Addressing market uncertainty on clean marine fuel supply and demand.

Note: For a comprehensive overview of progress and future plans, read more in the Annual Progress Report.

Photo credit: HMM
Published: 21 October, 2025