In focus: UK gets the ball rolling on cutting emissions with net-zero strategy launch

As the energy transition is gathering speed, reports on various efforts to decarbonise the oil and gas and the shipping sector continued to hit the headlines this week with the launch of the UK’s net-zero strategy being the one with the most far-reaching effects of them all.

As the UK is preparing to host the UN COP26 summit in Glasgow at the end of October, the government this week unveiled its long-awaited strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, outlining measures to lower its reliance on fossil fuels and transition to a green and sustainable future. At the summit, the Prime Minister will call on other world economies to set out their own domestic plans for cutting emissions.

The landmark Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener set out how the UK will secure 440,000 well-paid jobs and unlock £90 billion in investment in 2030 on its path to ending its contribution to climate change by 2050.

Building on the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan, the strategy set out an economy-wide plan for how British businesses and consumers will be supported in making the transition to clean energy and green technology – lowering Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels by investing in sustainable clean energy in the UK, reducing the risk of high and volatile prices in the future, and strengthening energy security.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said: “By moving first and taking bold action, we will build a defining competitive edge in electric vehicles, offshore wind, carbon capture technology and more, whilst supporting people and businesses along the way.”

French energy major TotalEnergies is already working on the transition of oil and gas workers into renewable energy, which will be enabled through its new UK offshore wind hub in Aberdeen, Scotland. TotalEnergies CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, this week opened the hub as part of the company’s existing offshore operations centre in Aberdeen.

Pouyanné said: “With the energy transition gathering speed, we see Scotland as a great place to broaden our relationship by investing in offshore wind. As a global multi-energy company long engaged in UK energy supply, our decision to base our UK Offshore Wind Hub here in Aberdeen is a mark of our confidence in the future of renewables in the UK and our continued commitment to Scotland and the North Sea.”

The announcement came as TotalEnergies is taking part in the ScotWind leasing round having proposed a 2 GW offshore wind project called West of Orkney Windfarm.

As the oil capital of Europe, Aberdeen has become the place to be for an Edinburgh-headquartered wave energy company, Mocean Energy. The company has put the decarbonisation of oil and gas on its agenda with the opening of a new dedicated office in Aberdeen to meet the growing oil and gas interest in the decarbonisation of North Sea assets.

Mocean Energy is developing a wave energy machine – called the Blue Star – to provide zero-carbon power to subsea equipment and future fleets of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

The office is being headed by the commercial director, Ian Crossland, who brings over twenty years’ oil and gas experience. He said: “By bringing the power source close to where it is required, and combining with subsea batteries, Blue Star technology will offer a zero-carbon, lower-cost option to umbilicals seen in traditional hub and spoke applications.”

Development of new subsea technologies is also on the agenda of Shearwater GeoServices, which has unveiled a new seismic source technology for enhanced subsurface characterization known as Harmony.

The technology provides seismic surveys with enhanced low frequencies enabling better decisions for exploration, development, and carbon storage monitoring applications. With the carbon capture and storage projects being one of the crucial elements of the energy transition, Shearwater’s new tech may prove useful when it comes to carbon storage monitoring.

Harmony has multiple applications as it provides deeper seismic imaging, more realistic models of the earth’s subsurface, and more precise estimation of the reservoir properties for 3D and 4D applications.

Decarbonisation of the marine shipping sector is one of the burning topics in the offshore energy industry and new initiatives are appearing to accelerate the decarbonisation of the sector. This week, nine major cargo owners pledged to switch all of their ocean freight to vessels powered by zero-carbon fuels by 2040 as part of a new initiative Cargo Owners for Zero-Emission Vessels (coZEV).

Amazon, Brooks Running, Frog Bikes, Ikea, Inditex, Michelin, Patagonia, Tchibo, and Unilever were the first signatories of a new global project facilitated by the Aspen Institute and supported by Clean Air Task Force. Together, these companies committed to aligning their ocean shipping with the 1.5°C goal.

“Maritime shipping, like all sectors of the global economy, needs to decarbonise rapidly if we are to solve the climate crisis, and multinational companies will be key actors in catalyzing a clean energy transition in shipping,” Dan Porterfield, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, commented.

“We need to speed up the transformation towards zero-emission ocean shipping,” said Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschöld Sustainability Manager Supply Chain Operations at IKEA.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-based clean fuel for marine transport provider, West Coast Clean Fuels, (WCCF), will be working to develop and operate the end-to-end clean fuel supply chains for two first-of-their-kind decarbonised maritime ship operations in two major California ports.

WCCF has executed delivery service agreements to develop, permit, manage and operate these clean fuel supply chains to serve a growing market need for the delivery of future low-carbon maritime fuels. These include LNG, RNG, biofuels, electrofuels, and hydrogen-based fuels (such as hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia).

“Critical supply chains for low- and zero-carbon maritime fuels simply don’t exist yet,” said Pace Ralli, CEO of SWITCH Maritime. “A lot of new infrastructure investment, both public and private, will be needed to make displacement of carbon-emitting fuels a reality. And that investment needs to start now if we’re going to be ready for the oncoming energy transition.”

WCCF has designed the initial supply chains based on smaller delivery volumes for the first vessels under contract. It will be possible to scale using larger or different equipment as demand for clean fuel increases.