ABS Chairman and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki emphasized that IMO must take decisive action to bridge the significant price gap between fossil and alternative fuels.
Speaking at the Capital Link Singapore Maritime Forum in late March, ABS Chairman and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki conveyed that the IMO needed to take immediate action to ensure the necessary pace and scale of change. He highlighted that addressing the significant price gap between fossil and alternative fuels was crucial, as the IMO held the key to the situation. Wiernicki stressed that the industry’s ability to meet the 2050 targets largely depended on the IMO’s actions in the coming months.
He said the present trajectory would see the industry fall well short of its 2050 targets: “The headline is that something is really going to have to bend the curve if we want to make net zero by 2050 a reality, because we are currently way off the pace and scale of change that we will need. Fortunately, our destiny remains in our hands: we are not done yet. But success will now surely be a function of what the IMO does next. We need clarity and consistency and a level playing field for the whole industry. Right now, the industry is divided, and there is no clear way forward.”
Wiernicki said the industry is looking to the IMO to show leadership in supporting adoption of alternate fuels, a necessary and key step before new nuclear technology becomes available and appropriately regulated, a function of governments.
We know the bookends. It starts with oil and gas, with LNG and carbon capture. The long term increasingly favors nuclear if we want to make net zero by 2050 a reality. The key question for all of us today is what is going to drive the story in the middle?
… he said, adding that the mid game looks like a mix of biofuels, methanol and ammonia, and it is the IMO that is going to have to drive this. While it is true that success in the decarbonization of shipping will be a team sport, we will certainly need our captain to play a decisive role. Now is the time for the IMO to show strength and leadership, he concluded.
To remind, earlier this month the WSC released a new research that shows both renewable-capable vessels and renewable fuels could be available to meet EU 2030 targets, but that the price gap between fossil and renewable fuels is the major barrier to making decarbonisation a reality.
