Navigating Net Zero Shipping
Charting the course to no emissions at sea
How many of the objects around you were once transported by boat?
The maritime industry has a huge effect on our everyday lives. It's the mainstay of global trade, with an estimated 80-95% of all goods being shipped. This sector touches most people on the planet, whether directly or indirectly, but its impact is often invisible.
This is true of its benefits as well as its costs. Shipping is an enormous polluter, contributing 3% of global emissions. It's time to turn the tide.
As Andrew Forrest explains, transforming the sector "presents the greatest single opportunity for investors and shareholders that the world has seen in at least 100 years".
Andrew is the CEO of global mining company Fortescue. He's also a bold advocate for ocean health, which sustains life on Earth along with billions of livelihoods.
By embracing visionary ideas and technologies, Andrew believes the shipping industry can play a key role in protecting the ocean's future – and our own. His company is leading by example. Fortescue's Green Pioneer is the world's first dual-fuel ammonia ship, representing a major leap towards zero carbon shipping.
This isn't the only sustainable innovation making waves across the sector. As AVEVA’s CEO Caspar Herzberg outlines, the industrial software company can design entire ships in the cloud, using millions of data points to streamline whole fleets. This could cut the emissions produced by a third.
Startup BlueNose are using design to improve the aerodynamics of ships, lowering emissions by increasing efficiency. Their core product is a wind deflector that is retrofitted to vessels to reduce air drag. Co-founder Joë Sangar points out that, at scale, this has the potential to save $5 billion and 11 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
What will it take to accelerate a green shipping future? The technologies needed to decarbonise already exist. Finance, policy, and collaboration are now forging the route towards industry-wide change.
With both economic and environmental rewards on the horizon, the only option is full steam ahead.
With thanks to the following contributors:
Fortescue, a member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative
Aveva, a member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative
BlueNose, a 2024 winner of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Design Lab
