Leading organisations and initiatives across the shipping value chain, joined by the largest producers of green hydrogen, on Monday (14 November) signed on to a joint statement at COP27, committing to the rapid and ambitious production and use of low-carbon fuels based on green hydrogen to accelerate decarbonisation of global shipping, according to Climate Champions.

The Joint Statement on Green Hydrogen and Green Shipping, facilitated by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and nonprofit RMI, was signed by representatives of the A.P. Moller – Maersk, MAN Energy Solutions (MAN ES), Aspen Shipping Decarbonization Initiative, the Getting to Zero  Coalition, the Green Hydrogen Catapult, the Green Hydrogen Organization (GH2), ACWA Power, CWP Global, Fortescue Future Industries, and  InterContinental Energy.

“Our path ahead is clear: shipping must transition away from fossil fuels and toward scalable zero-emissions fuels. Members of the Getting to Zero Coalition and other  signatories to this joint statement stand firmly behind this goal and have already taken  crucial first steps to make this happen. Commitments today show that there will be  sufficient supply of green fuels and demand for zero-emissions shipping,” said Johannah Christensen, CEO of the Global Maritime Forum, founding partner of the  Getting to Zero Coalition.

“We are energised by the momentum we see in the maritime and hydrogen sectors toward full industry decarbonization on a Paris-aligned timeline,” said Ingrid Irigoyen,  director of the Aspen Shipping Decarbonization Initiative, which facilitates the Cargo  Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV). “Climate-leading cargo owners want zero emissions shipping to not only become available and competitive, but to become the  new normal,” Irigoyen added.

By bringing suppliers and consumers of green hydrogen into agreement about the urgency of the technology’s adoption in shipping, the joint statement aims to build  confidence for the deployment of low-emissions fuel at scale to unlock cost reductions  and reduce investment risk.

“We are living in a climate emergency, and we need to rapidly accelerate the global availability of green fuels,” said Henriette H. Thygesen, CEO of Fleet and Strategic  Brands at A.P. Moller – Maersk. “Access to green hydrogen is an important pathway to  secure this important scale-up for the shipping industry as a whole and for us at A.P.  Moller – Maersk to reach our 2040 net-zero target. Operating a large fleet of container  vessels, we have made the choice to take an active part in shaping the solutions for the  future together with partners. No one can do it alone.”

In the agreement, the signatories have agreed to pursue cross-sector collaboration to achieve:

• Commercially viable zero-emissions vessels operating on the deep seas by 2030
• Scaling up production of green hydrogen to 5.5 million tons per year by 2030 for use in shipping
• Full decarbonization of the shipping sector by 2050 at the latest

“This is a target that we can reach. In fact, achieving existing targets set by Green  Hydrogen Catapult members alone would be enough to supply nearly 90 percent of the  green hydrogen needed by the shipping sector by 2030,” said Oleksiy Tatarenko, senior principal at RMI and secretariat of the Green Hydrogen Catapult, a coalition of green hydrogen producers and first movers committed to mobilizing production and  demand of the low-carbon energy source in this decade. “To make it happen we need,  among other things, to triple down on planning for green shipping corridors as fuels are  supplied in specific places.”

Alex Hewitt, CEO of global green hydrogen developer CWP Global and current chair of  the Green Hydrogen Catapult, added: “This is a significant step forward for the green  hydrogen and shipping industries. We are pleased to bring the heft and commitment of  the Catapult companies to accelerate progress this decade toward zero-emissions  shipping. The joint statement, as well as last week’s launch of the Green Shipping  Challenge, which CWP participated in, are very good news for the planet.”

“More than anything, the world needs a massive amount of industrially scaled green  hydrogen production to build momentum for the broad adoption of hydrogen as a  maritime fuel,” said Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions. “Decarbonization of  the marine industry is a mammoth undertaking but, I believe, eminently achievable  through cooperation with like-minded industry partners. At MAN Energy Solutions, we  believe that hydrogen has a key role to play in getting to net zero, and our recent,  significant investment in our hydrogen subsidiary, H-TEC SYSTEMS, intends to quickly  transform it into a mass-producer of PEM electrolyzers.”

The signatories called on international authorities and national governments to support private-sector commitments with correspondingly ambitious policy. The joint statement specifically asks the International Maritime Organization and member states to commit to a 100% emissions reduction for the maritime sector by 2050 with robust interim  targets.

“The time for hesitation has long passed – every actor in this space has the opportunity to take bold action now, both individually and together, and this urgently includes  policymakers at the IMO and domestically helping us de-risk this transition and create  the conditions for success,” said Ingrid Irigoyen of the Aspen Shipping  Decarbonization Initiative. “We and our fellow high-ambition partners are ready to do  our part, but we know that global policy change is needed to create opportunities for  zero-emissions fuels and technologies to thrive and quickly achieve scale.”

Johannah Christensen of the Getting to Zero Coalition added: “To take this further, we  need fast and bold action by policymakers to develop an ambitious and supportive  policy framework that accelerates this transition, without which the maritime industry  alone cannot achieve full decarbonization by 2050.”

Note: The full joint statement can be read here.

Photo credit: Maersk

Published: 15 November, 2022