Maersk signs first green methanol deal for zero-carbon shipping: Reuters

A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Wednesday that it has secured a contract to secure green methanol as the world's largest shipping company prepares to launch its first carbon-neutral ship in 2023.

With over 90% of global trade moved by sea, worldwide shipping contributes to nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions. Maersk needs to have a carbon-neutral fleet by 2030 to reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Yes, it’s one vessel, but it’s a prototype for a scalable carbon-neutral solution for shipping,” Morten Bo Christiansen, Maersk’s head of decarbonization, told Reuters.

The firm is also trying to address problems in obtaining fuel supplies, which Christiansen estimated to be 20 million tonnes for the whole fleet. Green methanol, as the name implies, is generated utilizing renewable resources such as biomass and solar energy.

“Let’s stop talking about fossil fuels and instead focus on scaling this prototype because it’s actually solving the problem,” he said while declining to give a time frame for when such a market would be realistic.

Future vessels outfitted with engines that can operate on green methanol will be 10-15% more expensive in the first few years, and the fuel would cost more than twice as much as traditional bunker fuel, according to Christiansen.

“The good news is that because of the amount of oil we consume we can actually start shaping a market just on our demand,” Christiansen said.

He stated that while Maersk would carry the more expensive vessels on its balance sheets, the extra fuel costs would be passed on to consumers.

“But it’s actually not that much more expensive, because even if we double our fuel cost, the impact on a pair of sneakers is less than five cents,” Christiansen added.

Source: Reuters