00:001 out of 5 european jobs is depending on export. Green is not black or white.
00:05There are no single simple solutions. But is it going fast enough? No.
00:15Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews, where we dive deep into the world of business.
00:22I'm Eleanor Butler, and today I'm joined by Håkan Agneval, CEO of Votselle.
00:29Thank you so much for being here with us.
00:31So part of Votselle's business is to create new technologies for the shipping industry.
00:36But can you tell me how important is shipping for the European economy?
00:40If we look at the goods that is entering or exiting the EU, 90% of that is done by sea transport.
00:48And export, as we all know, is very important for Europe.
00:521 out of 5 European jobs is depending on export.
00:55When we think about the importance of marine transport, let's take the example from 2021,
01:02when we had this big container vessel, Ever Given, it got stuck in the Suez Canal.
01:07The estimates are that every day the cost for the global economy of that Suez Canal being shut down
01:16was 10 billion euro. And that shows how important the marine shipping is for the global economy.
01:23And what are the key risks to shipping at the moment?
01:27The big topic of discussion is, of course, the geopolitical tensions,
01:32new trade barriers being imposed, fee structures, etc.
01:36Then, of course, the decarbonization journey. I mean, the industry set a target
01:41through the International Maritime Organization. That's basically the regulating organization for
01:47the whole industry. And IMO is developing framework to move the whole industry to net zero
01:55by or around, as it's called, 2050. And now there is a discussion about what is the next step
02:02on the decarbonization journey in the marine industry.
02:11And so shipping is obviously going through a period of transition.
02:14Is the industry moving fast enough at the moment on sustainability measures?
02:18Global shipping accounts for about two to three percent of global CO2 emissions.
02:24If you look at the global emissions, aviation industry is about the two, three percent as well.
02:30But then I would argue that marine carries a whole lot more goods. And it's it's a harder bait industry
02:37because you have these vessels sailing far out of the sea. So you really need to find fuels and
02:42other things that that, you know, can can sustain that situation. Now, is the industry moving fast enough?
02:49The answer there is no, we are not moving fast enough. The movement has started and I do see
02:54it's accelerating. So with a positive perspective, a lot of things is happening. But is it going fast enough? No.
03:02And how specifically is Wotselle working to find sustainability solutions?
03:07The lifetime of a vessel is about 30 years. And when I talk to our customers, which are the ship owners,
03:13they are formulating their strategies. They are not sitting still. They are thinking, you know,
03:18what's going to happen in 30 years when we talk about how do you decarbonize the marine industry?
03:24So there are kind of three avenues that you can run in parallel. The first is to to run your vessels
03:31more efficient. And that is about route planning or route optimization. Second avenue is the future fuels.
03:38And that is about green fuels like like methanol, ammonia, but also continue to reduce the emissions
03:46from the current fossil fuels. Then the third avenue is carbon capture, taking from the exhaust of the
03:53engine, extracting the carbon. And without technology, which is now commercially available, we can extract
04:0070 percent, gathering that CO2 on the vessel and bringing it ashore. But what do we do with it? There are two
04:07major ways. One is to pump it back where it came from, basically, or to use it as as a raw material
04:14in chemical process, including producing synthetic fuel. But that whole ecosystem is still in a very
04:20early stage. The good thing is we have the technology, but now, you know, how could we use it? And how the
04:27key element is the social aspect. It's about jobs. It's about people being able to have a future for
04:34themselves and their family. And I think this is also why the whole topic of decarbonization is so
04:39sensitive. Green is not black or white. There are no single simple solutions. And how easy is the
04:46carbon capture technology to install? So there is about 100,000 large vessels out there in the world,
04:54and we cannot just scrap them. You can actually fit it into the existing vessels. And of course, you can
04:59fit it into new vessels as well. Yes, there is certainly a cost to that. But I think what really
05:06triggers the economy of the whole equation is, OK, what carbon pricing mechanism will there be?
05:13And what will be the cost or value that you can create, either depositing the CO2 or using it as a raw
05:21material? And oil is currently the dominant fuel for shipping. But I wonder how viable alternatives like
05:27ammonia are at the moment? If you look at the vessels that are being contracted right now,
05:33about half is running on the traditional heavy fuel diesel. And about half are actually prepared
05:41for what is called alternative fuels. But a big chunk of those alternative fuels, that's LNG. So it's gas,
05:47it's natural gas. So it's fossil. We are ready for the carbon neutral fuels. So methanol engines are being
05:53delivered as we speak. Then we have the next step. And those are what we call the zero carbon fuels.
05:59And there you have ammonia for shipping. And then we have hydrogen. And hydrogen in our view would be
06:04more for the land applications, because we build power plants as well, because the energy density of
06:10hydrogen is not good enough for big shipping. You will have to have a lot of tanks and then you can carry
06:17less color. The technology to use the fuels, the green fuels, the future fuels, is actually here.
06:23The challenge is the fuel is not available in sufficient amounts and it's still very expensive.
06:29And to offset that, you need to create incentives and fees to create this level playing field.
06:35The UN's International Maritime Organization has been trying to introduce a levy for carbon emissions from
06:42shipping. In October, the US blocked this, meaning the global players will have to wait a year before
06:48voting on the measures. Can you give me your thoughts on this? There was supposed to be a vote about
06:53introducing a new global carbon pricing mechanism. Now, this was postponed for a year. I think the
07:00challenge for the marine industry is that we are likely going in now to a situation with a much more
07:05fragmented landscape of different regulations. Because the EU still has its regulations and the marine
07:12industry have been included in the ETS. I mean, basically the European system for trading carbon
07:18emissions. There is the EU fuel marine, which is putting levies on marine fuel. We hear rumors that the
07:24Chinese are now considering their Pacific frameworks. So having a vessel that can handle different fuels,
07:30that's critical. And the other is fuel efficiency, because fuel will become more expensive. There
07:36will be some kind of levies on the fossil fuels and the green fuels today, they are two to four times
07:41more costly than the fossil fuels. Okay. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on the big question.
07:47It's been a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
07:58Thank you.
Commenti