ChatGPT generated panoramic image of a handful of shipping executives looking in confusion at a table full of low-carbon shipping fuel options, including a miniature nuclear reactor, batteries, biofuels and hydrogen

Lack Of Consensus On Maritime Decarbonization

The industry refuses to accept implications of radical decline in bulks, battery improvements and cost declines, and biofuels

For three years, the International Chamber of Shipping has been running a survey of ship owners, covering multiple domains, including biggest risks to shipping, changes in shipping patterns with initiatives like friendshoring and most relevantly for this discussion, decarbonization. Recently they dropped their 2023–2024 survey, and the results indicate ongoing confusion among shipowners, as well as a lot of successful lobbying and some wishful thinking.

International Chamber of Shipping three-year perspective on changing shipowner perceptions of decarbonization

LNG as a shipping fuel is seeing declining support, one of the better notes from the results. For those not paying attention, burning methane in ship engines has been a big business for the past 20 years. In addition to the obvious use in LNG tankers, it’s taken the passenger ferry and cruise ship industries by storm, mostly because it doesn’t stink nearly as badly as legacy maritime shipping fuels when burned.

Unfortunately, the methane-burning advocacy groups have been challenged by it only…