By Jack Wittels, Bloomberg Green
A century after the global shipping fleet ran largely on coal, the world’s largest shipping line is taking a historic step toward not using fossil fuels for propulsion.
All newly constructed vessels owned by A.P. Moller-Maersk will have to be able to use carbon-neutral fuels, such as clean methanol and ammonia, as well as traditional oil-based products, the company said in a statement. The shift comes just three months after the industry’s main regulator set new decarbonization rules that were criticized for their lack of ambition.
“If you don’t do this, ten years from now we risk becoming irrelevant,” said Morten Bo Christiansen, vice president and head of decarbonization at Maersk. “Our customers need us to do this.”
Alongside ammonia and clean forms of methanol, Maersk said so-called alcohol lignin blends were another primary candidate for future fuels.
Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which has been embraced by some other shipping lines, is not part of Maersk’s strategy: “We don’t need another fossil fuel,” Christiansen said.
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About half of Maersk’s 200 biggest customers have set science-based or zero-carbon carbon targets for their supply chains, or are in the process of doing so. The firm wants to have net-zero emissions from its operations by 2050, and helped found a research center focused on decarbonizing the industry.
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