Bunker suppliers must prepare for the end of fossil fuel bunkers within 25 years: ICS

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) today has told bunker suppliers they must prepare for the end of fossil fuel bunkers “within as little as 25 years, if not sooner.”

In comments made in a press release accompanying a presentation today at the Platts’ Mediterranean marine bunker fuel conference in Athens, ICS argued “the sector is now on an inevitable trajectory towards a future of zero CO2 emissions.”

ICS Director of Policy, Simon Bennett, likened the transition to that of motor cars replacing the horse and cart.

However, is not yet clear exactly what technologies will allow the transition away from fossil bunker fuels to take place.

“Henry Ford remarked that if, in say 1890, you had asked someone in the street what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse,” said Bennett.

“Governments need to recognise that many ships will remain dependent on fossil fuels probably at least until around 2050, just as some people in developed nations were still using horses in 1920.  But the momentum created by the Paris Agreement on climate change means that the wholesale switch to alternative fuels and propulsion systems will be relentless and inevitable.

“This will happen as soon as the technology and bunkering infrastructure permits, which ICS is confident it eventually will, whether using fuel cells or batteries powered by renewable energy, technologies such as hydrogen or some other solution we can’t yet anticipate.

Source: www.shipandbunker.com