Royal Dutch Shell, together with Deloitte UK and Deloitte Netherlands, has published a join report describing their research into the shipping industry’s views about decarbonising the sector.
The report, titled “Decarbonising Shipping: All Hands on Deck”, presents the opinions of high-ranking shipping executives and outlines various approaches for meeting the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) long-term aim of cutting carbon emissions in the sector.
Shell’s downstream director, Huibert Vigeveno, said about the report:
“We know that shipping is one of the harder sectors to decarbonise, which is why we are working with our customers and the wider industry to identify possible solutions. This report shows the urgent effort required by industry to reduce carbon emissions.”
Vigeveno added that this was driven by the company’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 for its operations, which range from oil production to producing derived products like agricultural oil.
The report reveals that decarbonisation is clearly being taken seriously, with 95% of the surveyed shipping executives rating it as a top-three priority. Much of this seems to have occurred over the past year and a half, with 80% of respondents stating that the issue had become rather more important over this period.
Technology alignment and market and customer demand were identified by the vast majority of respondents as major factors that will help bring about decarbonisation. Almost two thirds also cited infrastructure replacement as a major factor in bringing about the transition at scale and speed.
