LNG has been highlighted as the best starting point to decarbonise shipping

11 Nov LNG has been highlighted as the best starting point to decarbonise shipping

LNG has been highlighted as the best starting point to do something that would set on an ultimate course of moving to new zero-carbon fuels in the future.

Many of the shipping industry’s top executives gathered on Glasgow over the weekend to give their verdict on how the industry decarbonises as regulators thrash out climate details at the ongoing COP26 climate summit.

As the shipping industry is looking to decarbonise by using more efficient technologies and lower emission fuels, liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been highlighted as the best starting point to do something in the short term while the sector awaits a more stable regulatory framework that would set it on an ultimate course of moving to new zero-carbon fuels in the future.

Shipping figures debated LNG’s role as a shipping fuel as methane came under increasing fire during the COP26 climate conference.

Christine Cabau Woehrel, CEO of CMA Ships and head of fleets and assets at French liner CMA CGM, stressed that the industry needs a very pragmatic approach and that “what is available now, should be the now.”

Rolf Habben Jansen, the CEO Hapag-Lloyd, said that Germany’s largest liner is also looking at LNG which can give a contribution today and that is important to do things today and not only in the future.

Svein Steimler, president and CEO of Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Europe, believes LNG is a bridge into something new that will come.

Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime, also reckoned the industry should stop talking about what it wants to do in 2050 as LNG is a really good step to take now.

Vandita Pant, chief commercial officer of mining giant BHP, acknowledged that the fuel mix needs to change.  She said that mix needs to involve “pragmatic, here-and-now” choices that acknowledge the energy transition.  That is why BHP was first among miners to adopt LNG as a fuel.

Source: splash247