WITH the bulk of world trade supported by sea and 100,000 commercial operating vessels consuming 300 million tonnes of fuel a year, the shipping industry contributes to about 3 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

And it is under rising pressure to become greener and cleaner amid brisk shipping activities to meet explosive e-commerce demands.

Although the shipping industry has managed impressive emissions reductions in the last 10 to 15 years, the world's largest boxship liner AP Moller - Maersk believes efficiency measures can never deliver the level of decarbonisation the industry is targeting.

"That requires a shift across the entire global supply chain, from fossil fuels to green fuels produced with renewable energy or sustainable biomass", said Maersk's head of decarbonisation Morten Bo Christiansen.

"This is an enormous challenge; but when looking at it this way, the 'hard to abate' tag turns out to be more of a chicken-and-egg problem."

Shipping is regarded as an industry that is "hard-to-abate" - a term referring to the transition being not so straightforward, because either the technology is lacking or its cost remains prohibitive.

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"There is no green fuel market because there are no green ships to create demand. And no one considers building a ship, since there is no fuel to propel it. What is needed is for the stakeholders in the value chain to lean out and break the cycle," said Christiansen.

Maersk in August placed an order for eight 16,000 TEU container vessels that can run on green methanol. And in February, it announced it will operate the world's first carbon neutral liner vessel by 2023 - 7 years ahead of its initial 2030 ambition. The company has pledged that all new build vessels it orders will be able to operate on carbon-neutral fuels.

TEU, or 20-foot equivalent unit, is a unit of measurement used to determine cargo capacity for container ships and ports.

With its recent vessel orders, Maersk has generated sizeable demand for carbon-neutral methanol some years down the road. "This means fuel developers with promising projects now have the opportunity to accelerate their plans to scale production," Christiansen stated.

Since embarking in 2018 on the initiative to achieve carbon-neutral marine operations by 2050, Maersk has undertaken a number of initiatives. These include identifying a list of the future carbon-neutral fuels with the most potential and sourcing carbon-neutral fuel - 10,000 tonnes of green methanol a year - to propel the world's first carbon-neutral container vessel, as well as investing in startups with promising future fuel solutions.

Christiansen's decarbonisation department is staffed with 65 experts, and it works with all parts of the Maersk business to achieve the initiative and ensure alignment throughout the company.

More than half of Maersk's customers have established or are in the process of establishing science-based targets for the supply chains.

Added Christiansen: "As a global provider of integrated end-to-end container logistics solutions, it is natural for us to take steps to also decarbonise the emissions associated with transporting and handling our containers on land and in the air.

"We have committed to setting science-based targets also for these areas of our business in order to align with the Paris Agreement goals. The science-based targets for shipping are currently under development, and we will communicate our specific targets once this work has been finalised."

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) drives climate action in the private sector by enabling companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets.

Maersk in May signed its Business Ambition for 1.5 deg Celsius - a call to action from a global coalition of United Nations agencies as well as business and industry leaders to halve greenhouse-gas emissions before 2030, achieve net-zero emissions before 2050, and halt the global temperature rise to 1.5 deg Celsius.

Neutralising air travel

Like Maersk, American planemaker Boeing says sustainability solutions require alignment across multiple stakeholders.

Jacqueline Lam, Boeing's regional lead for sustainability policy and partnerships in South-east Asia, gave the example of the company's advocacy for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF): "While we have pioneered the technology that enables commercial flights on SAF, a number of other factors are crucial in ensuring sustainable implementation and deployment.

"From sustainable feedstocks of biofuel manufacturers, to refuelling infrastructure in airports and harmonising biofuel blending mandates by government authorities across the globe, we have been working hard to engage the relevant stakeholders in ensuring the most conducive environment for international SAF deployment."

She added: "Partnerships are key to the scale-up and adoption of SAF. We recently announced a partnership with SkyNRG focused on scaling the availability and use of SAF globally." SkyNRG is a supplier of SAF.

Sustainability is not new to Boeing, Lam noted. "We have reduced emissions by 70 per cent and noise 90 per cent since we launched the jet age with the 707 in 1957. Improving aviation efficiency has been paramount, with our 2009 Dreamliner and the 787 family designed for maximising operational efficiency, fuel savings and, in turn, reduced carbon emissions."

Boeing has set targets to improve fuel efficiency by up to 40 per cent with each new generation of aircraft, and mitigate global warming with its net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 pledge.

One of its immediate goals is to ensure 100 per cent SAF capabilities across all its commercial aircraft by 2030. In the longer term, the company also wants to improve and scale aviation technologies in clean energy, as well as advanced technology in power systems and platforms.

Its product development has focused on resource efficiency to reduce impact on the environment. For instance, its ecoDemonstrator aircraft have showcased the latest sustainable aviation technologies since 2012.

The ecoDemonstrator programme accelerates innovation by taking promising technologies out of the lab and testing them in the air. Under this programme, Boeing has undertaken projects that include technologies to reduce fuel use, emissions and noise, and incorporate materials that are more sustainable.

Boeing also lays claims to the first sustainable fuel flight, with Virgin Atlantic in 2008.

In 2018, the Boeing ecoDemonstrator flight test programme made the world's first commercial flight using 100 per cent sustainable fuels with a 777 Freighter - this time in collaboration with FedEx Express.

Sustainability at Boeing is not limited to internal operations, as the company has increasingly seen customers request sustainable products and services.

Through the appointment of Boeing's chief sustainability officer Chris Raymond in September 2020, the company has institutionalised sustainability initiatives in its various business functions.

"To address sustainability challenges holistically, we also have sustainability representatives across the globe working on external stakeholder engagement to foster a conducive policy and industry environment for sustainable aviation," added Lam.

Electric cars and buses

Over at ComfortDelGro Corporation, sustainability has been a staple since the introduction of the group's Green Statement in 2007, when it made a pledge towards preserving the environment. The local land-transport heavyweight with a global presence was also the first mobility operator in Asia to commit to the SBTi, said its chief branding and communications officer Tammy Tan.

ComfortDelGro said it plans to develop its transition plans and work towards having the SBTi targets validated and approved over the next 17 months, including transitioning towards a clean-energy fleet, improving energy efficiency, adopting renewables, and driving business innovation.

Said Tan: "In fact, our bus subsidiary, Metroline, is one of (the) earliest to make the transition. Slightly more than half of its bus fleet in London, UK, are hybrids and electric buses, and it is also the operational partner for Transport for London's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles project."

In the city-state, the group has a large fleet of hybrids and has been trialling electric vehicles (EVs), with the intent for mass roll-out once they become commercially viable.

Nearly 60 per cent of its 10,000 taxis are currently petrol-electric hybrids and fully electric, while its public transport subsidiary SBS Transit is already operating 30 electric buses.

In Melbourne, Australia, the group has taken delivery of 40 out of 50 petrol-electric buses financed under a green loan, making its subsidiary CDC Victoria the largest hybrid-bus operator in the city.

"In China, where we operate taxis in 9 cities, all new vehicles have to be EVs. To date, we have 4,083 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and EVs out of our combined fleet of 10,345 taxis there.

"The group plans to fully replace the taxi fleet with hybrids by 2023. There are plans to electrify the entire taxi fleet, but that depends on available supporting charging infrastructure to ensure that our drivers are not inconvenienced."

In March, the company announced plans to invest about S$10 million in the mobility-focused CDG-NUS Smart & Sustainable Mobility Living Lab. The facility will focus on energy sustainability, integrated urban mobility, and smart, intelligent mobility technologies. It will research, test and analyse mobility technologies to generate insights that could later be implemented in solutions for the mass market.

ComfortDelGro will also invest another S$40 million to replace its fleet of diesel buses with electric buses, which may be deployed to the National University of Singapore (NUS) Kent Ridge campus, as well as support infrastructure and mobility technologies.

In September, ComfortDelGro Engineering's joint venture (JV) with French energy giant Engie won a tender in the EV charging field to install and operate 479 chargers at 155 public car parks in Singapore. Beyond this, the JV plans to build charging farms powered by renewable energy on ComfortDelGro's premises, offering fast charging solutions to both cabbies and public users.

The EV industry in Singapore is being closely watched by UOB too. "While Singapore's EV industry is at a nascent stage, we see great opportunities in this space as Singapore ramps up its Green Plan initiatives," said Karunia Tjuradi, head of the sector solutions group at the bank.

UOB offers an integrated financing solution called U-Drive to simplify and accelerate the adoption of EVs for different players across the entire eco-system. Said Tjuradi: "Our goal is to support our clients through their sustainability journeys and forge a sustainable future together."