By Hauwa Ali
Danish shipping company, Maersk has established ambitious 2030 targets, as part of its 2040 decarbonization strategy, as it aspires to have at least a quarter of its ocean cargo transported with green fuels.
Speaking during Maersk’s ESG Day presentation, Executive Vice President Henriette HallbergThygesen, said that the roadmap will drive the company’s investments moving forward, and technology pathways for the company’s ocean transport branch have already been selected.
Namely, Maersk aims to cut its emission intensity in the ocean space by 50% when compared to the 2020 baseline. This includes having at least 25% of ocean cargo transported with green fuels.
To achieve these goals, Maersk will invest in fuel efficiency improvements, as well as transitioning into green fuels by investing in green vessels and potentially retrofiting selected existing vessels.
In total, Maersk needs about 6 million tonnes of green methanol per year to achieve its 2030 milestone fleet emissions target and even greater amounts by 2040 for its fleet to reach net zero.
Additional activities in the ocean scope will include the introduction of chartered green vessels as well as the use of biodiesel.
According to SørenSkou, CEO of Maersk, the company’s 2021 emissions accounted for 1% of all global emissions in transport and logistics and close to 0.1% of all global CO2 emissions. The largest portion of these emissions comes from container shipping.
On the sidelines of COP27 in Egypt, Maersk signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources for cooperation in the field of green marine fuel production and investments in green methanol production in the Aqaba region.
In addition, the company also entered a green methanol partnership with Carbon Sink. This is Maersk’s 8th such agreement in the efforts to accelerate global production of green methanol.