The shipping industry says there needs to be more research into new technology before emissions targets set by the International Maritime Organization can be reached.
Pacific Island nations were central to pushing a deal that was struck this month by more than 170 countries at the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2008 levels.
World Shipping Council CEO John Butler told Tim Glasgow that while the industry supports efforts to cut emissions, there is currently no technology that will allow them to reach this target.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Transcript
JOHN BUTLER: In the short term, the industry will continue to do what it has been doing. In particular in the container sector, the efficiency of vessels in the last 15 years has increased dramatically. That's in many cases due to more efficient engines, better design, in some cases larger vessels which have better per-cargo unit profiles in terms of industry use etc, bottom coatings, and propeller designs. They're all things that are being done today that are making the ships more efficient, but at some point you can only make a ship so carbon efficient burning fossil fuels. It's with respect to that next jump - it's not necessarily energy efficiency but in terms of reducing carbon emissions if you are going to get to 50 percent carbon emission goal, rather obviously you can't be burning fossil fuels.
TIM GLASGOW: So for the shipping industry, what are the alternatives to using fossil fuels?
JB: There's nothing, Tim at this point there is no mature technology that gets us there. This is not a situation where the IMO sets a very high standard for the purpose of causing someone to switch to a known technology. There is no known technology that is available to put on a ship to get us to these goals. In order to get to these goals it will be necessary to stand up a very substantial research and development exercise or effort in order to figure out which technologies are most promising and then pursue those technologies to the point where they can be safely and commercially deployed on a vessel.
TG: The research into these technologies really is the first step that needs to be taken.
JB: Yeah, I just don't see that there's any other way that we are going to get from where we are today to where we're going without some technological breakthrough. And it may not be one thing, it may be some version of biofuels fuels coupled with using fuels cells for auxiliaries. And there are all sorts of things that have gotten research and development over recent years, but frankly, the scale of those efforts is currently not sufficient to get us where we need to go in the timeline that is being discussed.
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