Risks of weak IMO action loom over green fuel transition – Opportunity Green
Failure to set the right policy direction at the IMO risks locking the shipping industry into polluting fuel pathways, Aoife O’Leary, chief executive of Opportunity Green, tells ENGINE.
PHOTO: Fortescue ammonia-capable vessel, Green Pioneer, in London. Fortescue
It could also undermine early investments in bunker fuels with zero-emission potential, she warns.
“The greater the ambition now, the less work Member States will have to do later.”
The IMO’s Intersessional Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Reduction (ISWG-GHG) will meet on 31 March and 1 April to discuss mid-term climate measures. These discussions will shape proposals for MEPC 83 in two weeks, where clearer direction on policy design is expected.
A majority of ratifying countries support introducing a greenhouse gas (GHG) fuel standard as the main technical measure.
Opportunity Green’s O’Leary argues that the current draft of this standard could “greenlight non-solutions like LNG and biofuels”, which will be a “serious misstep” that risks rewarding short-term compliance over genuine decarbonisation.
“Member States can either seize this unique opportunity for coordinated climate ambition by setting course directly for 2050 or take these unsustainable detours that fail industry first movers and will only create more policy gaps to fill in future,” she adds.
Most countries also back a global GHG levy as IMO’s primary economic measure, but remain divided about its level, which is proposed to range from $18-150/mtCO2-equivalent. Disagreements also persist around the use of complementary mechanisms such as feebates, market flexibility tools and revenues disbursement.
O’Leary argues that anything less than the “strongest levy possible” risks stifling investment in cleaner fuel options and discouraging first movers.
“Robust regulation would drive suppliers and shipowners towards the green hydrogen fuels with the least emissions, while rewarding those that move first and furthest. Incremental steps will create nothing but admin for the industry. Rather than stymying the boldest companies who we should be uplifting, Member States must deliver the most sustainable solutions by aiming for the strongest levy possible.”
Some shipping companies like Maersk and X-Press Feeders have already trialled bio-methanol. Australian mining firm Fortescue is testing ammonia as a marine fuel. Without long-term regulatory certainty, O’Leary warns, such efforts may struggle to scale against cheaper transitional fuels.
“All change comes with risk”, she says, “but ambitious IMO policies would provide the certainty as to the future fuel mix that investors are looking for to ramp up development.”
By Konica Bhatt
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