UK launches 2nd round of clean maritime competition with £12m funding

DfT Robert Courts UK Maritime Minister
The UK government has confirmed £12m in funding to accelerate the research and development of zero emission maritime technologies.

The funding comes as the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) is in its second round.

Robert Courts, UK Minister for Maritime, made the announcement when meeting with 55 winners from last year’s competition in Portsmouth today.

“Following the success of last year’s competition, this second round has been designed to support a shipping future that uses the most creative and innovative ways for people and goods to sail in cleaner and greener ways,” Minister Courts said.

“At COP26 we pledged to create a green maritime legacy for generations to come, and UK SHORE puts us at the forefront of the global green maritime revolution – supporting thousands of green jobs around the country.”

The competition is one of the first initiatives from UK SHORE which has been set up to provide a greener maritime sector.

Maritime UK Chief Executive, Ben Murray, said: “The establishment of UK SHORE is a very important step on the UK maritime sector’s decarbonisation voyage.

“Its first intervention – an extension to the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition - is showing the UK is determined to be a global leader on clean maritime. As before, industry will co-invest to create the solutions needed to decarbonise.”

One of the objectives is to shift to zero emissions ferries and ro-ro vessels that currently produce around 1m tonnes of CO2 emissions.