BW, EPS and ONE among partners in $90m Singapore decarbonisation centre

BW Group, Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), Ocean Network Express (ONE), Foundation Det Norske Veritas, BHP and Sembcorp Marine signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Wednesday morning to establish a fund to set up the decarbonisation centre.

Each partner private sector partner will contribute SGD10m to the fund to support the setting up of the centre and research projects with the MPA adding SGD60m to bring total initial funding to SGD120m.

The setting up of the centre was among the recommendations of the International Advisory Panel on Maritime Decarbonisation that released its recommendations on Wednesday ahead of the agreement signing. Formed in July last year the IAP is co-chaired by Andreas Sohmen-Pao in his role as Chairman of the Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF) and Wong Weng Sun as Chairman of the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI).

“A key focus of the IAP is on concrete actions and collaborations,” Wong told a media briefing prior to the MoC signing.

In terms of concrete action Sohmen-Pao elaborated: “One of the key projects we proposed is to establish a decarbonisation centre. I am pleased to report we are already taking concrete steps towards the realisation of this centre with a signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation with founding partners.”

Related:Multiple pathways and collaborations needed to decarbonise shipping: MISC chief

Witnessing the signing of the agreement was Chee Hong Tat, Singapore Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Finance, who said, “We have six partners coming onboard to sign this MoC together, and I think this a good start, and I hope more partners can come onboard over time.”

Explaining more about how centre would collaborate with other research bodies in the same space Sohmen-Pao said, “It’s our intention this centre will work closely with NTU’s Energy and Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence and will also collaborate with other centres such as the Maersk-McKinney Moller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping.”