How can we decarbonise shipping without damaging the global economy?
The decision on a levy on carbon emissions from shipping, proposed by the UN’s International Maritime Organization, has been delayed until 2026. But is the industry ready for a decarbonised future?
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/12/01/how-can-we-decarbonise-shipping-without-damaging-the-global-economy
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00:00One out of five European jobs is depending on export.
00:03Green is not black or white.
00:05There are no single simple solutions.
00:07But is it going fast enough? No.
00:15Welcome to The Big Question,
00:18the 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,
00:27CEO 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 EU,
00:4590% of that is done by sea transport.
00:48And export, as we all know, is very important for Europe.
00:52One out of five European jobs is depending on export.
00:55When we think about the importance of marine transport,
00:59let's take the example from 2021,
01:02when we had this big container vessel, Ever Given,
01:05it got stuck in the Suez Canal.
01:07The estimates are that, you know, every day the cost for the global economy of that Suez Canal being shut down was 10 billion euro.
01:18And that shows, you know, 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, new trade barriers being imposed, fee structures, etc.
01:36And then, of course, the decarbonization journey.
01:39I mean, the industry set a target through the International Maritime Organization.
01:44That's basically the regulating organization for the whole industry.
01:48And IMO is developing a framework to move the whole industry to net zero by or around, as it's called, 2050.
01:58And now there is a discussion about what is the next step on 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.
02:35And it's a hotter bait industry because you have these vessels sailing far out of the sea.
02:41So you really need to find fuels and other things that, you know, can sustain that situation.
02:47Now, is the industry moving fast enough?
02:49The answer there is no, we are not moving fast enough.
02:52The movement has started, and I do see it's accelerating.
02:56So with a positive perspective, a lot of things is happening.
03:00But is it going fast enough? No.
03:02And how specifically is Wotzele working to find sustainability solutions?
03:07The lifetime of a vessel is about 30 years.
03:10And when I talk to our customers, which are the ship owners, they are formulating their strategies.
03:16They are not sitting still.
03:17They are thinking, you know, what's going to happen in 30 years?
03:20When we talk about how do you decarbonize the marine industry, so there are kind of three avenues that you can run in parallel.
03:28The first is to run your vessels more efficient.
03:32And that is about route planning or route optimization.
03:35The second avenue is the future fuels.
03:39And that is about green fuels like methanol, ammonia, but also continue to reduce the emissions from the current fossil fuels.
03:49Then the third avenue is carbon capture.
03:51Taking from the exhaust of the engine, extracting the carbon.
03:56And without technology, which is now commercially available, we can extract 70 percent, gathering that CO2 on the vessel and bringing it ashore.
04:05But what do we do with it?
04:06There are two major ways.
04:08One is to pump it back, where it came from basically, or to use it as a raw material in chemical process, including producing synthetic fuel.
04:17But that whole ecosystem is still in a very early stage.
04:22The good thing is we have the technology, but now, you know, how could we use it?
04:26And how the key element is the social aspect.
04:29It's about jobs.
04:30It's about people being able to have a future for themselves and their family.
04:36And I think this is also why the whole topic of decarbonization is so sensitive.
04:40Green is not black or white.
04:42There are no single, simple solutions.
04:45And how easy is the carbon capture technology to install?
04:49So, there is about 100,000 large vessels out there in the world, and we cannot just scrap them.
04:56You can actually fit it into the existing vessels, and of course you can fit it into new vessels as well.
05:01Yes, there is certainly a cost to that, but I think what really triggers the economy of the whole equation is,
05:09OK, what carbon pricing mechanism will there be, and what will be the cost or value that you can create,
05:17either depositing the CO2 or using it as a raw material.
05:21And oil is currently the dominant fuel for shipping, but I wonder how viable alternatives like ammonia are at the moment.
05:28If you look at the vessels that are being contracted right now, about half is running on the traditional heavy fuel diesel,
05:38and about half are actually prepared for what is called alternative fuels.
05:43But a big chunk of those alternative fuels, that's LNG, so it's gas, it's natural gas, so it's fosite.
05:49We are ready for the carbon neutral fuels, so methanol engines are being delivered, as we speak.
05:54Then 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,
06:03and hydrogen in our view would be more for the land applications, because we build power plants as well,
06:08because the energy density of hydrogen is not good enough for big shipping.
06:14You will have to have a lot of tanks, and then you can carry less carbon.
06:17The 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 shipping.
06:42In October, the U.S. blocked this, meaning the global players will have to wait a year before voting on the measures.
06:49Can you give me your thoughts on this?
06:51There was supposed to be a vote about introducing a new global carbon pricing mechanism.
06:57Now, this was postponed for a year.
06:59I think the challenge for the marine industry is that we are likely going in now to a situation with a much more fragmented landscape of different regulations.
07:09Because the EU still has its regulations, and the marine industry have been included in the ETS,
07:15I mean, basically the European system for trading carbon emissions.
07:19There is the EU-fueled marine, which is putting levies on marine fuel.
07:23We hear rumors that the Chinese are now considering their Pacific frameworks.
07:27So having a vessel that can handle different fuels, that's critical.
07:31And the other is fuel efficiency.
07:33Because fuel will become more expensive, there will be some kind of levies on the fossil fuels,
07:39and the green fuels today, they are two to four times more costly than the fossil fuels.
07:43Okay. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on the big question.
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