Singapore panel on maritime decarbonisation unveils recommendations

The IAP released its recommendations at a media briefing on Wednesday morning including the setting up of a Maritime Decarbonisation Centre, which was set in motion with an industry signing following the briefing.

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), and the panel comprises 28 other leaders from across the industry.

Sohmen-Pao told the briefing: “The IAP’s vision is for Maritime Singapore to support the decarbonisation of the industry to meet or exceed the IMO goals for 2030 and 2050. and to do so by shaping carbon measures, by setting standards, by piloting innovations, by building infrastructure, by deploying incentives and connecting stakeholders.

“To give some framework around this we’ve organised these concepts into four high strategic objectives and nine pathways under those.”

The four strategic objectives are to – harmonise standards; implement new solutions; finance projects; and collaborate with partners.

The objective from the IAP was to provide a framework to explore all options for decarbonisation of shipping, with many unknowns that still have to be addressed.

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“The panel’s recommendations were not to simply say ‘this is the answer’. Rather we are saying how can we create collaborations, investigations, explorations that get us to the truth, rather than being the sole arbiter of truth upfront,” Sohmen-Pao explained.

“If we can bring together the right people who are focused on the right topic we will get closer to truth and achieve the ultimate objective. There’s a danger sometimes in taking too stronger stand too early because there are still unknowns that we have to address.”

A wide range of joint projects were identified by the panel including establishing the decarbonisation centre, exploring fuel trials for regional container feeder vessels, biofuel trial for tramp services, retrofitting and constructing newbuilds for methanol and ammonia fuel, and electrification of ferries.