On the shipping lane by Kari Nousianien via Flickr CC
The ports of Gothenburg and Rotterdam pledged to establish a Green Corridor between the two cities, which will put a framework in place for collaboration on alternative fuels and reducing carbon emissions.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of the Swedish and Dutch royal families. It is intended that the corridor will become part of the European Green Corridors Network, set up in March 2022 by the Maersk McKinney Moller Centre for Zero-Carbon Shipping.
According to a recent report from McKinsey, zero-emission fuels and vessels will need to be deployed over the next decade to achieve full decarbonization of the shipping sector by 2050. “This ambitious goal could be catalyzed by green corridors.”
The zero-emission goal was established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which has mandated emission reductions of 50 percent for all vessels by 2050. (Annex 11 Resolution MEPC.304(72) adopted April 13, 2018, Initial IMO strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships, International Maritime Organization, imo.org.) A number of countries—including Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—have declared a target for net-zero shipping emissions in the same time frame.
The U.S. Department of State released a “Green Shipping Corridors Framework” fact sheet in April that states: “Green shipping corridors can spur early and rapid adoption of fuels and technologies that, on a lifecycle basis, deliver low- and zero-emissions across the maritime sector, placing the sector on a pathway to full decarbonization. The United States envisions green shipping corridors as maritime routes that showcase low- and zero-emission lifecycle fuels and technologies with the ambition to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions across all aspects of the corridor in support of sector-wide decarbonization no later than 2050. There are multiple pathways through which a fully decarbonized corridor can be achieved; this green shipping corridors framework therefore provides maritime stakeholders the flexibility to choose the path that best suits their needs.”
It seems that we are in the early stages of actually establishing green corridors in the maritime/port sector, which is why the Rotterdam-Gothenburg agreement is significant. Allard Castelein, Chief Executive of the Port of Rotterdam said: “This Green Corridor initiative is part of our ongoing efforts to bring together parties across the supply chain to help realize more sustainable shipping in support of the Paris Agreement.” And Elvir Dzanic, Chief Executive of the Gothenburg Port Authority added: “We can now present a more distinct path towards the decarbonization of shipping.”
The McKinsey report asserted: “Finding industry-wide solutions is challenging, given the varied and complex nature of the sector. One way to accelerate decarbonization is to implement ‘green corridors’: specific trade routes between major port hubs where zero-emission solutions are supported. A new report, The next wave: Green corridors, produced by the Getting to Zero Coalition in collaboration with the Global Maritime Forum, Mission Possible Partnership, and Energy Transitions Commission, with analytical support from McKinsey, probes the feasibility of two such selected corridors,” the Australia-Japan iron-ore route and the Asia-Europe container route.
The results of this analysis are “encouraging” but there is still a long navigation ahead.
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