Nordic Roadmap: Immediate government action needed to close fuel transition cost gap

The Nordic Roadmap project has unpacked the Fuel Transition Roadmap for Nordic Shipping, a “comprehensive” report that urges Nordic ministers to take immediate action to support the maritime industry in achieving its environmental goals by closing the cost gap associated with the fuel transition.

As informed, the document’s findings and recommendations, submitted on December 3, were officially presented to Nordic ministers at a Green Shipping conference held in Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen.

Funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the roadmap was reportedly developed by the project team led by the Norwegian classification society DNV alongside members from the German engine manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions (MAN ES), the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Chalmers University of Technology, Norway’s consultancy firm Menon Economics, and Danish maritime environmental consultancy Litehauz.

According to DNV, more than 60 other industry partners participated in this endeavor—which first started in 2022 intending to reduce ‘crucial’ barriers to the uptake of zero-emission fuels and develop a common roadmap for the whole Nordic region towards zero-emission shipping.

“This Roadmap is a worthy initiative and, in tandem with other global decarbonization efforts, represents a concrete way for Nordic shipping to collaborate and push decarbonization through – among other parameters – the adoption of zero-emission fuels and green corridors,” highlighted Bjarne Foldager, Senior Vice President and Head of Two-Stroke Business, Denmark, MAN ES.

As per the report, in order to decarbonize, the shipping industry will need to switch to zero-emission fuels. However, the Roadmap strategy identified three main barriers to their uptake in the region:

• Demand and costs – said to be connected to the lack of demand for zero-emission shipping and cost-competitiveness of zero-emission fuels;
• Fuel availability – referring to the lack of onshore development of the supply chain, including fuel production and sourcing of raw materials, distribution, and bunkering infrastructure;
• Technology and safety – referring to the ‘low maturity level’ of fuel technologies and safety regulations, both onshore and onboard vessels.

To overcome these ‘interlinked’ hurdles, the report introduced what it named the ‘seven building blocks’, which are broken into 20 actions to be taken toward 2030. As explained, these represent specific work packages that governments and industry stakeholders should collaborate and work on in tandem with upscaling the utilization of zero-emission fuels.

The ‘essential’ recommendations of the roadmap spotlight the need for government action to bridge the cost gap for sustainable fuels and to accelerate the implementation of “competitive” tenders for green shipping corridors.

What is more, this strategy envisions the first corridor becoming operational by 2025, followed by three more the next year and an additional six by the end of 2028. As for the immediate priority, developing a plan for the regional integration of fuel production and infrastructure will be ‘essential’, DNV elaborated.

“The Nordic Council of Ministers is proud to have helped bring about this comprehensive and ambitious public-private cooperation,” Ida Heimann Larsen, Deputy Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, remarked.

“And we will continue to support the advancement of the 7 key building blocks of the Road Map as part of a wider, cross-sectoral focus on the green transition of our blue economy. These are important stepping stones on our path towards making the Nordic region the most sustainable in the world.”

Reflecting on this recent development, Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO Maritime at DNV, stressed that Nordic governments should “act swiftly” on the measures identified in the Fuel Transition Roadmap as this could ‘boost’ the industry’s confidence to invest in zero-emission fuel-capable ships as well as the fuel infrastructure needed to support them.

“Cross-border and value chain collaboration will be crucial in enabling the industry to overcome key barriers and to meet the ambitious decarbonization targets. By leading the way, the Nordics can not only drive value creation and boost exports but can also play a key role in the global fuel transition,” Ørbeck-Nilssen commented.

From a broader perspective, concerning clean fuels—from low to zero-emission—the momentum keeps on building, despite certain hurdles.

For instance, in an updated version of its Fuel Pathway Maturity Map, which was published in November 2024, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) argued that, despite green shipping’s woes, clean fuels remain a tangible solution across the maritime value chain.

More precisely, the fuel maturity map dealt with the matter of whether or not low-emission fuels such as green ammonia, bio-methane, e-methanol and sustainable types of diesel could, indeed, support the industry’s ambitious climate neutrality goals—including the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) target of going net zero by or around 2050.

Christoffer Lythcke-Elberling, Head of Transition Modeling & Analytics at MMMCZCS, shared back then that the narrative of maritime decarbonization being ‘at a halt’ was far from reality.

“The technical side of the industry is on the right path, with tangible advancements in key areas. This should enforce confidence in the green transition in stakeholders across the value chain,” Lythcke-Elberling emphasized.

Nevertheless, MMMCZCS accentuated that the industry could only fully accomplish its climate goals if clear certification standards, robust emission controls, and global regulatory consensus were established.