ENERGY TRANSITION

Getting to Zero Coalition

Accelerating maritime shipping's decarbonization with the development and deployment of commercially viable deep sea zero emission vessels by 2030 towards full decarbonization by 2050.

Climate change is a serious social and economic challenge that requires urgent action involving all sectors of the economy including international shipping.

The adoption in 2018 by the IMO of a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping by at least 50 percent by 2050 as compared to 2008 shipping emissions, whilst pursuing efforts towards phasing them out, set a first target for the maritime industry that can be expected to ultimately align GHG emissions from shipping with the Paris Agreement.

To reduce emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050, and to reach zero emissions by 2050, zero emission vessels (ZEVs) and by association zero emissions fuels are a requirement, since improvement in energy and operational efficiencies – while critically important – is not enough.

Achieving the 2050 target requires immediate action. Ships can be operated for 20 years or more, which means that the ships entering the world fleet around 2030 can be expected to be operational in 2050. Similarly, infrastructure associated with fuel supply chains can have a long economic life of up to 50 years, and reconfiguration to new fuels can be a lengthy process. As a consequence, there is a need to have technically feasible, commercially viable, and safe zero emission deep sea vessels entering the global fleet by 2030, as well as a clear path to provide the large amounts of zero carbon energy sources¹ needed to allow the rapid uptake of ZEVs in the following decades.

Decarbonizing shipping is an integral part of the wider global energy transition and can be leveraged to drive investment in energy projects, for instance in developing and middle-income countries, where low cost zero carbon energy sources derived from abundant untapped renewable resources could bring substantial development gains.

Coalition member companies from across the maritime, fuels and infrastructure value chains are committed to making the vision of decarbonized shipping a reality by getting commercially viable ZEVs into operation by 2030 along with the associated scalable infrastructure, towards full decarbonization by 2050, and we invite our industry peers to join us in this “race to the top” for the future of our industry.

Achieving our ambition, requires commitment, perseverance, innovation and cross industry collaboration as well as the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders from beyond our industries, including from the public sector. We are therefore inviting governments, international organizations, and other stakeholders to work with us to achieve the vision of commercially viable and scalable solutions that enable ZEVs by 2030 and rapid growth of this fleet thereafter, towards a full decarbonization by 2050. Together we can take a giant leap towards the decarbonized, sustainable and affordable shipping industry needed for our global future.

The Ambition

The Coalition is defined by the following ambition and a set of core principles that all members share. Delivery of these shared objectives will require collaboration and commitment from the broad range of stakeholders that form the Coalition.

AMBITION STATEMENT
The ambition of the Getting to Zero Coalition set in the Ambition Statement is to have commercially viable ZEVs operating along deep-sea trade routes by 2030, supported by the necessary infrastructure for scalable zero-carbon energy sources including production, distribution, storage and bunkering², towards full decarbonization by 2050.

CALL TO ACTION FOR SHIPPING DECARBONIZATION
The Coalition endorses the messages and ambition of the Call to Action for Shipping Decarbonization launched in September 2021 which points to the need for shipping to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal and be run entirely on net-zero energy sources by 2050.

The strategy towards 2030 and 2050 ambition

The Strategy for the Transition to Zero-Emission Shipping[LD1]  sets out key milestones for the sector towards full decarbonization. These include milestones within policy, finance, demand and technology/supply. The Transition Strategy also charts the necessary steps to achieve this, including steps that must be taken within the next 24 months.

The Getting to Zero Coalition 2022-2023 strategy therefore identifies the following primary objectives for the Coalition by the end of 2023:

  • Industry Action: Through Getting to Zero Coalition, industry engagement turns into concrete action, including the development of a number of deep sea green corridors with participation from Getting to Zero member companies.
  • Policy Action: Through Getting to Zero Coalition engagement, inform and support policy action, especially the adoption of a revised GHG strategy at the IMO setting a zero in 2050 target, as well as the agreement on the measures needed to ensure this in a just and equitable manner.

The objectives will be supported by a range of activities across the two thematic areas, supported by community building and strengthening, building and dissemination of knowledge as well as strategic communications.


¹ The term zero carbon energy sources should be understood as including zero carbon and net zero carbon energy sources. See definition of zero carbon energy sources
² See industry roadmap