NEW YORK: September 23, 2019. A.P. Moller - Maersk says it has become a founding member of the ‘Getting to Zero Coalition’, announced at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, to decarbonise global shipping and energy value chains by 2050 and operate zero emissions vessels by 2030.

Despite reducing emissions 41 percent on cargo moved by 2017, the company has decided the shipping industry must introduce carbon neutral propulsion technologies to achieve zero emissions.

“Maersk is in a unique position to set a visionary ambition for the future. ‘Getting to Zero’ is a great opportunity for Maersk to lead the charge for decarbonising logistics and ensure that our industry adds its strong voice to the global dialogue on climate change,” commented company COO Soren Toft.

Other members of the coalition are Citibank, Shell, Cargill, Kuehne + Nigel, and Unilever. The aim is to have the first commercially viable, deep-sea carbon-neutral vessel by 2030.

The transport industry is responsible for 23 percent of the global GHG emissions annually, with 2-3 percent coming from maritime shipping. If maritime shipping were a country, it would be the world’s sixth biggest GHG emitter.

Maritime shipping is a “hard-to-abate” sector, says the company, because costs of cutting carbon emissions are high and progress in reducing them is slow. Other similar sectors are aviation, cement, steel, chemicals, and long-distance trucking.

Maersk says decarbonising shipping and its energy value chains demands for close collaboration and deliberate collective action from shipping companies, logistics providers, researchers, technology developers, cargo owners, and legislators to transform the industry and move away from fossil-based technology.