Hauke Kite-Powell, Marsoft's Senior Vice President, Managing Decarbonization, spoke today at Marine Money Gulf Ship Finance Forum in Dubai.
Referencing one of the key findings from Watson Farley & Williams’ Sustainability Imperative 2.0 Report discussed earlier in the program today, Hauke agreed that without some form of carbon offsets and carbon trading, net zero in shipping will not be possible. Hauke’s focus here is on the Voluntary Carbon Markets and the role they can play in shipping on the route towards decarbonization. He started by showing how energy trajectories have shifted over time, and how many of those trajectories are now reaching an inflection point. It’s clear the energy transition is panning away from fossil fuels and the energy markets are fast adapting to environmental concerns, which means we could see peak demand for hydrocarbon fuels over the next decade.
Using LNG as an example, looking at global gas demand by region, Hauke showed that after a long period of strong growth, forecasts are being continuously revised down and all the indicators point to slower growth in the future. The likely peak in LNG demand projected for the mid-2030s is therefore a key consideration when looking at shipping investments.
Whilst the long-term solutions remain unclear, as many have discussed already today, a key option for this transitional phase is the extension of a vessel’s trading life by retrofitting. Fuel consumption and therefore carbon emissions can be reduced significantly by retrofits to improve a ship’s performance and make it more competitive. The role of Marsoft’s GreenScreen program is to help owners accurately assess the benefits of a retrofit or combination of retrofits and thereby access the Voluntary Carbon Markets as an additional source of funding. The Gold Standard supports this initiative as a way of incentivizing owners to take more aggressive steps to invest in ESDs and improve the performance of the global shipping fleet.
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