Decarbonisation & The Silk Alliance- An industry for the future that can learn from the past.
This is a critical decade for accelerating the maritime energy transition if new vessels commissioned from the early part of the 2020s are to be equipped with the appropriate technology. Since 2020, three major decarbonisation centres have been established in London, Copenhagen and Singapore to provide the industry with leadership insight and evidence on the safe adoption of low- and zero-carbon energy systems. All three centres draw on the expertise of partners from a wide variety of maritime organisations, providing impartial and independent advice for the industry. They work closely with each other, underlining the importance of global collaboration in tackling climate change. In the words of Nick Brown, LR’s Chief Executive: ‘We either all win in saving the planet or we all lose.’
The Maritime Decarbonisation Hub was the first major collaboration between LR and the Foundation, and furthered the Foundation’s objectives by drawing on LR’s expertise. The Hub was set up to help the shipping industry understand the various energy alternatives, the safety risks involved and how to manage them. The work of the Hub, however, has wider implications. Targeting all the parties with an interest in moving shipping to alternative energy, from designers, builders and owners to ports, charterers, fuel producers and finance houses, it offers valuable lessons for other industries struggling to reduce emissions. Moreover, by helping to decarbonise international shipping effectively it will also help to decarbonise global supply chains.
Research carried out by the Hub established that for shipping to help limit the rise in global warming, the first large-scale deep-sea vessels running on zero-emission fuels needed to be in service by the mid-2020s, with zero emission vessels the standard for the industry by 2030. The major challenge was not only ensuring the technical viability of a safe zero-emission ship but also that the necessary land-based infrastructure was in place to support the transition. Arising from this, the Castor Initiative, with LR as one of the partners, was launched in 2019 to develop a design for an ammonia-fuelled tanker. It is planned that the first zero-emission vessel will be in service by the mid-2020s.
LR and the Foundation also came together at the COP26 conference in 2021 to encourage governments to enact policies and offer incentives for private investment to support research into zero-emission vessels and the most appropriate ships for international trade routes. The work of Katharine Palmer, seconded from LR as the shipping lead for the UN’s High-Level Climate Champions initiative, was instrumental in mobilising the shipping community to reach an agreed position, working together to achieve a greater impact and create more confidence.
One of the outcomes was the Clydebank Declaration, an initiative led by the UK government and signed by 19 nations. Launched at the conference, the declaration committed its signatories to setting up green maritime corridors, that is, specific routes decarbonised throughout from ships to land-based infrastructure. Identifying the volume of zero carbon energy required on each route will help governments promote renewable energy production in key ports.
In May 2022, Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and partners launched ‘The Silk Alliance’ to develop a Green Corridor Cluster beginning with intra-Asia container trade.
Learning From the Past
The mission of the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub to accelerate the sustainable decarbonisation of the maritime industry can potentially benefit from LFP in several ways:
The shipping industry needs leadership, collaboration and evidence-based direction to achieve its decarbonisation goals. By harnessing the outputs of an LFP approach, the Hub can add value to its own agenda to create and share evidence, insight and knowledge about the transition to a decarbonised world fleet.
The LFP programme will construct and liaise with an international network of relevant historians and policy makers across the public, private and third sectors, as well as think tanks, campaign groups, journalists and other opinion-formers. Stakeholder mapping and engagement will also benefit the Hub as it continues to work in partnership with other forward-looking organisations to deliver credible thought leadership to the industry - regulators, policy makers, investors, owners, operators, charterers and customers.
By taking the Heritage & Education Centre (HEC) collections as a starting point, the historical research has the potential to demonstrate the economic value of safety, the effectiveness of previous interventions, and the impact of earlier innovations and fuel transitions. A learning from the past approach can highlight opportunities and risks of potential pathways to technological and policy change, by helping us to understand what has worked (and what has not worked) in the past. It also supports wider realisation of the key role that Lloyd’s Register has played in researching new technologies and in keeping them safe.
This collaboration brings the added advantage of expert support and guidance of the Foundation team to inform the challenge-led approach of the research, as well as effective routes to impact through engaging existing LR contacts in the wider maritime industry with the aims and outputs of the project.