Aiming for zero CO2 emissions in shipping

NOT long ago anybody talking about ships that emitted no carbon dioxide from their engines would have had their sanity questioned.

A couple of weeks ago the reassuringly sane deputy secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Simon Bennett, asserted that the ambitious CO2 reduction targets set by the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the year 2050 can only be delivered with the global roll-out of zero-CO2 fuels and propulsion systems.

Speaking at the annual Summit of Transport Ministers hosted by the OECD International Transport Forum in Leipzig, he said: "As well as being consistent with the 1.5 degree climate change goal, the IMO targets are far more ambitious than what has so far been agreed for aviation, or indeed the commitments made by governments with respect to the rest of the global economy under the Paris Agreement.