Applauding the shipping industry’s move to cleaner air and lower GHG emissions Photo: CMA CGM

It is time to celebrate the recent LNG-fuelled new build vessel announcements from many major shipping industry leaders.

Their decisions serve to again emphasize that the industry is moving forward environmentally and doing what is right.

Shipping, and in fact, the global environment cannot afford to wait for future solutions that may or not be safe, affordable, and scalable. To suggest that moving to LNG today and gaining the well-known air quality benefits and proven greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions now blocks future emissions reductions is at best, ill advised. At worst, it is dangerous. Delaying only exacerbates the current situation. We must continue to act now.

TTo state today that future fuels will be safe, scalable, and competitive ten or twenty years from now is just not possible. Those that suggest they know and have theoretical models that allegedly prove their claims are just not being realistic. Forward thinking and environmentally conscious ship owners, however, are recognizing that the investments they make today in LNG Dual Fuel (DF) vessels (engines capable of using more than one fuel, such as LNG and MGO) and bunkering infrastructure mitigate the risks they may face tomorrow. Perhaps most importantly, these owners understand there is no reason to wait; a silver bullet solution does not exist and may not exist in the future. Let us not forget that it took almost 50 years of testing and technology together with operational experience to bring LNG to where it is today as a scalable and sustainable maritime fuel.