Getting to Zero Coalition develops action plan for maritime decarbonisation

June 27, 2022, by Ajsa Habibic

The Getting to Zero Coalition, an initiative for accelerating international shipping decarbonisation, has held its annual working session with the objective of turning the ambition of full decarbonisation by 2050 into a concrete and actionable plan.

Illustration (Archive). Courtesy of Global Maritime Forum

During the gathering, the participating coalition members collaborated on detailing out an action plan, focusing on the combination and acceleration of four change levers: technology on land and on board, mobilising demand, financing and policy.

To explore and determine what the maritime sector must do in the short and medium term to accelerate shipping decarbonisation, workshop participants collaborated in working groups on breaking down the Getting to Zero Coalition’s “Strategy for the Transition to Zero-Emission Shipping” into concrete actions.

“Since the Coalition’s establishment in 2019, we have come a long way together on our journey to decarbonise international shipping“, says Johannah Christensen, CEO of the Global Maritime Forum. “During this workshop, it was clear that the members of the Coalition want to go further and faster. The action plan that we developed together details out the steps we need to take collectively to reach our shared goal.”

In addition to its action focus, the workshop marked the coalition’s alignment with that of the Call to Action that was launched by the Getting to Zero Coalition in 2021, aiming for full decarbonisation of shipping by 2050.

To reach that target, the development of industrial-scale zero-emission shipping projects and the adoption of policy measures to support the commercial deployment of zero-emission vessels and fuels are needed, making ordering of zero-emission vessels the default choice by 2030, according to the coalition.

Announced at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019, the Getting to Zero Coalition now counts more than 200 member organisations within the maritime, energy, infrastructure, and finance sectors, supported by key governments and IGOs.