Over 50 stakeholders from across the maritime sector have signed a call for urgent action on developing the supply chain for hydrogen-based alternative fuels. Signatories include Anglo-Eastern, Adani, LR, ONE, MOL, Trafigura and Fortescue.
Announced at the 2024 UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) in Baku, Azerbaijan, the petition calls for the shipping industry to act quickly to adopt ambitious and binding commitments for the measurements of carbon emissions at MEPC83, which is to be held at IMO in April 2025.
The petition argues for:
- A measurement that includes a greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity fuel standard (a technical requirement) “with a strong penalty for noncompliance”.
- A global and appropriately priced bunker tax at ~$100-150 per tonne of CO2e. (This is equal to about $300-450 per tonne of bunker fuel.)
The group also calls for strong standards for well-to-wake GHG emissions accounting and for criteria that aim for absolute emissions reductions.
Dr Andrew Forrest, Founder and CEO of Fortescue, stated of the petition that: “Fortescue does not believe so-called transition fuels [LNG] are the way forward. We need the IMO to agree to a zero emissions fuel standard. The choice is whether to waste the next 10 years on incremental measures that cost more and deliver less or deliver a Real Zero fuel standard that drives investment into real maritime decarbonization solutions.”
The Call to Action commits signatories in the global shipping sector to prioritize investments in hydrogen-derived fuels that significantly reduce emissions and transition costs. The industry has also committed to the full decarbonization of the maritime sector, with a target of using at least 5% and potentially up to 10% of energy from zero or near-zero emissions technologies, fuels, and energy sources by 2030.Â