Erik H?nell reflects on COP28

The #COP28 climate summit last week provided a venue for the shipping world to come together and further its plans to decarbonise amidst our growing climate emergency.

Decarbonising the global economy and combatting climate change is undoubtedly the most important challenge we are facing today across industries worldwide. We must pursue new forms of energy and we must make sure that industries can transition to a decarbonised future in a truly sustainable way; sustainable for the environment, and sustainable for those businesses too.

While we wait for the final outcomes of the summit from a global perspective, there are some things that have long become clear for shipping, regardless of the level of international ambition.

First, we are a “hard-to-abate” industry, because we can’t just deploy renewables like we might do in our homes and in our offices. That said, the technical solutions for shipping’s decarbonisation are well known. Oceangoing vessels (leaving space to distinguish short-sea ships and ferries) will require some form of molecule to be combusted; electrification isn’t an option. And fuel bills are already the highest single cost to shipping operations, so we must stage through a decarbonisation pathway that stretches from here to 2050 in a financially sensible way.

The consensus on the ground in Dubai from the shipowners I have spoken to seems to be that we need a range of ‘carrots and sticks’ throughout the whole value chain to drive real change. In other words, investing in energy saving devices and alternative fuels needs to make commercial sense.

Let’s be clear: there is still a huge amount of uncertainty, and uncertainty can be both good and bad for business. Supply of alternative fuels is, as we know, one of the single largest hurdles to decarbonising shipping. It will likely continue to be a challenge until the point at which both shipowners and suppliers of these low carbon fuels fuel get clear direction and the right incentives to invest in a sustainable way.

The fundamental principle of mitigating uncertainty where we can is why Stena Bulk is leaving no stone unturned in our decarbonisation strategy.

What does this mean in practice? It means that we’re trying many solutions, across many vessels, to reduce our carbon emissions. We know that some of them might not work. But our partnership with Proman on methanol, trialing biofuel across our fleet, and exploring clean technology adoption where viable will all enable us to ensure that our fleet can continue to conduct its transport work with a minimal impact on the environment.

Finally, I would also encourage us all to continue to think about the crew that will be at the heart of this transition. They are often sidelined as part of the decarbonisation discussion, but that is wrong, as it these individuals and their skills that we will be entrusting to implement change. I am sure that the seafarer of the future will in many aspects work differently to the seafarer of today – and have different skills to boot. This is an area that I am excited to continue to explore with my colleagues across the Stena Sphere and particularly at Northern Marine Group.

The industry must prepare itself and invest if we are to meet new climate targets on the horizon. Our duty is to our customers, but also to the environment, and for us to enable ourselves to transport goods – whatever they may be – in the most sustainable way possible.