OECD Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum 2024

Session 5 - Greening maritime transport

Oct 11, 2024 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Auditorium

Description

Maritime transportation currently accounts for around 80% of the volume of international trade in goods and around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Greening maritime transport will be crucial to aligning trade with the Paris Agreement objectives. The recently revised IMO strategy sets a common ambition to reach net-zero GHG emissions “by or around” 2050, and a commitment to ensure an uptake of alternative zero and near-zero GHG fuels by 2030. This session will discuss how to unlock investment into the green maritime industry and reverse the emission growth trend of the past decade. This session will address the most promising technologies for reaching net-zero emissions in shipping, as well as the key challenges and opportunities for their adoption and scale-up. It will also discuss the contribution of maritime industries to build new energy supply chains, renewable fuel production and supply to shipping.

Presented by

Session 5 - Key resources

Emissions from global shipping

CO2 emissions from global shipping: A new experimental database

The shipping industry is essential for international trade, but it is also an important source of CO2 emissions. To make progress towards climate targets, countries need to monitor CO2 emissions from vessels owned by their ship operator companies. However, most shipping activity takes place outside national borders, making it more difficult to monitor than activity taking place within countries. The OECD’s experimental database on OECD.stat provides a new source of data for CO2 emissions from global shipping, which is available monthly in near real time. This Working Paper presents some initial results from the new data source and describes how they were produced.
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Reviews of Shipbuilding Economies

Peer review of the Romanian shipbuilding industry

Romania’s shipbuilding industry, with its roots going back to the early 1900s and a strategic location at the Black Sea and Danube River, plays an important role in the Southeast region’s economy and employment. Romanian shipyards construct a diverse set of vessel types from tugboats to navy vessels. However, the industry has seen a decline, with Romania’s EU ship completion share dropping from 21% in 2016 to just 2% by 2022. Challenges include geopolitical tensions escalating input costs. Nonetheless, opportunities lie in collaborative projects for increased innovation and supporting the green transition in the EU. Emphasizing workforce development and modernizing facilities for eco-friendly vessel construction could help rejuvenate Romania’s shipbuilding sector, further aligning it with environmental trends and technological advancements.
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Reviews of Shipbuilding Economies

Peer review of the Italian shipbuilding industry

With the rise of the East Asian countries, Italian shipbuilding industry steered its rudder to a more specialized production of complex ship types, in particular cruise ships. Italian shipbuilders have responded with agility to various economic challenges which affected the shipbuilding industry and continued to expand their activities. Italy, one of the world’s leading producers of cruise and passenger ships, built 36% for cruise ships in the world between 2013 and 2022. With a strong supply chain involving local enterprises, the Italian shipbuilding industry has maintained an advanced position in shipbuilding technology, enabling it to support the domestic economy and employment.
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Reviews of Shipbuilding Economies

Peer review of the Croatian shipbuilding industry

Croatia’s strategic position along the Adriatic Sea has historically positioned it as a key player in the global shipbuilding industry. Despite a significant decline in ship production by 75% in CGT following the sector’s privatisation in 2013, in time with its accession to the EU, the industry remains significant to the country’s economy. Shipbuilding in Croatia has notably shifted towards high-quality niche markets, with a special focus on constructing yachts and polar cruise ships and growing demand for environmentally friendly vessels, including electrically powered and alternative fuel-capable vessels. Employment in Croatian shipyards has significantly decreased since privatisation and challenges in attracting and retaining skilled labour persist. The maritime sector's shift towards net-zero emissions, coupled with collaborative projects within the EU, presents opportunities for technological progress and an increased orderbook.
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Reviews of Shipbuilding Economies 

Peer review of the Danish shipbuilding industry

Denmark has a long history in marine industry. Although newbuilding activity has decreased significantly since the late 1970s, based on its long history and well-established expertise within the industry, Denmark continues to have a strong maritime value chain including marine equipment, ship design, ship repair and finance. After the closure of shipyards, the yards have been transformed into industrial innovation sites. The Danish maritime industry’s competitiveness is shaped by its historically strong value chain including marine equipment industry and its several public-private partnerships that contribute to innovations. Several partnerships support decarbonisation in the maritime sector, notably the “Green Ship of the Future” which focuses on exploring new technologies for zero-emission maritime transport and involve many partners from the maritime industry. As in many other economies, securing workforce for the maritime industry has become one of the main challenges in Denmark. To attract young talents, maritime companies and associations in Denmark develop industry-university cooperation such as private-funded research projects and internship programs.
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Reviews of Shipbuilding Economies

Peer review of the Polish shipbuilding industry

Poland has a long and dynamic history in the shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding industry in Poland was affected by social and political changes in the late 1980s since most of Poland’s shipyards were owned by the State. Ship completions declined following the 2008 financial crisis and the withdrawal of government subsidies to state-owned shipyards in line with the EU’s state aid rules. Poland’s market share in global ship completions peaked at 2.6% in 2000 and decreased sharply in the 2010s to reach 0.1% in 2020. Since 2009, Polish shipyards have moved from the construction of new ships to ship repair and maintenance. Gdansk Shiprepair Yard Remontowa S.A. is the largest repair shipyard in Europe. The Ministry of Infrastructure announced the Strategy for Responsible Development (SRD) for enhancing the competitiveness of Polish shipbuilding industry in 2017. The Strategy focuses on increasing research and development investments, the modernization of shipyards, and the increase of employment in the sector. As in many other economies, labour and skills shortages have become one of the main challenges for the shipbuilding industry in Poland.
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Environment and innovation in shipbuilding

Environmental Policy and Technological Innovation in Shipbuilding

 This paper examines the relationship between environmental policy and “green” innovation in shipbuilding. The primary motivating question of this work is whether there is evidence of: i) technology push from innovation that enables environmental policy initiatives; and/or, ii) policy pull that induces innovation leading to “green” ships.  The key contribution of this work is to provide more insights into environmental policy in shipbuilding and its role in innovation activity, as well as to develop a rich dataset focused on  International Maritime Organization (IMO) policies aimed at encouraging improved environmental performance by ships.
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