Episodes of exclusive TPM content featuring interviews of key stakeholders and attendees.
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Having approved last year what some consider a surprisingly ambitious goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from shipping “by or around” 2050, the International Maritime Organization is now turning its attention to the fraught process of creating regulations to implement that goal. Doing so likely will be more difficult with the re-election of Donald Trump, a climate skeptic and opponent of regulation whose views could be felt at the IMO. However it plays out, the outcome of IMO regulation- making to implement its 2050 goals — with a key meeting set for April 2025 — will have huge implications for container shipping. Some observers believe that without a meaningful fuel tax — known to be controversial among IMO member states — there will be insufficient demand signals sent to energy producers whose announced projects for the most part aren’t moving forward yet. Without adequate supply, price will remain out of reach for shippers, most of whom are reluctant to pay above-market prices to drive down Scope 3 emissions, and for carriers that, without an effective fuel tax, will be left on their own to pass along zero-carbon fuel costs if a required fuel standard becomes the main tool the IMO implements to get to the 2050 goal. “There is a high level of uncertainty about both the availability of fuel and price of … green fuels in the future,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said on an Aug. 7 earnings call in which the carrier did an about-face in announcing orders for LNG ships for the first time amid uncertain availability and price of green methanol, until now its zero-carbon fuel of choice. This session will dive into the key issues and lay out the huge implications for the container shipping ecosystem.