Global shipping traffic causes around twice as many climate-damaging emissions as Germany. The Office for Technology Assessment at the Bundestag, or TAB for short, has now investigatedhow merchant ships can reduce their emissions on the way to climate neutrality.
The TAB published a report on this on Friday. The authors come to the conclusion that climate-neutral fuels in particular promise success. However, experts do not consider this to be sufficient; in particular, there is a lack of an international commitment to climate neutrality.
The worldwide merchant shipping fuels climate change to a considerable extent. In 2018, when global data was last collected, 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be traced back to commercial ships. For comparison: Germany’s share of man-made climate change is currently 1.5 percent of global emissions.
Merchant ships transport large quantities of goods over long routes on the world’s oceans. To do this they need large amounts of energy. Classic climate-friendly alternatives to the currently dominant heavy oil, batteries for example, usually have too little power. That’s why engineers have to get creative and look for alternatives.
Experts are calling for more than alternative fuels
The Science Media Center asked experts for their assessment of the TAB report. The response: The report has substance, but focuses too much on hydrogen fuels, so-called e-fuels. Researchers have been discussing for years whether heavy oil could be replaced by fuels made from hydrogen, biofuels or nuclear engines. Other scientists advocate more efficient designs, such as ship hulls that reduce fuel consumption or modern sails that allow the wind to relieve the work of the engines.
Jonathan Köhler from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research also represents this position. He says the TAB report underestimates wind forcing. The technology is already being used in commercial operations and does not require any new fuel infrastructure, said Köhler. Wind drives could be installed within one maintenance period. “Compared to e-fuels, they do not require any complex retrofitting,” says the researcher. The number of wind drives for ships is growing almost exponentially compared to the status in the report.
Headwind from the USA and oil states
A lot is happening technically in maritime shipping at the moment. But at the international level, climate neutrality is becoming more distant. Michael Vahs is a captain and researcher at Emden/Leer University and co-leader of the Fraunhofer Sustainable Maritime Mobility working group. He said he shared the report’s technical assumptions. But: The authors neglected the fact that the IMO postponed its decision on climate neutrality for a year last fall. Vahs says that Blockade by the USA and other states with an interest in the oil and gas business were notable and unsettled the maritime industry. Vahs says: “The development of the decarbonization of shipping is clearly too slow.”
Nora Wissner from the Öko-Institut also says: “Ideally, regulations for climate protection in maritime transport should be agreed at an international level.” In the current political climate, it is unclear whether the IMO will postpone its decision on climate neutrality any further.