Marine electrification as a way to fight climate change

The polling also revealed this is coupled with a strong desire for stronger safety regulations that would prevent all battery fires. 

As informed, residents across eight European countries—including in the UK, where support is highest—showed a strong desire for stronger safety regulations that prevent all battery fires.

Electrification in the marine and shipping industries has to happen if we want to meet International Maritime Organization, European Union and other GHG reduction goal. People want to see it happen, but do want to ensure regulators put strong rules in place to ensure mariner and public safety.

…said Brent Perry, CEO, Shift Clean Energy, and ZESTAs Chair.

Among others, polling findings include:

• There is considerable support for batteries as a tool to fight climate change, averaging 68%, with the highest in UK at 74%.
• UK, Belgium and France were the most supportive of governments encouraging batteries to fight climate change.
• Support for battery storage is also very high in the UK (74%); even the country with the lowest support was still very high (the Netherlands at 65%).
• Under half of those polled said existing regulations were strong enough, and there was universal support for change.
• Transparency is a priority: an average of 82% of residents polled agreed that reporting on any incident involving marine batteries, including fires, was necessary, with the UK the highest at 90%.

Without stringent safety measures and increased trust in marine batteries, the sector simply cannot thrive, and emissions reduction goals from the likes of the European Union and International Maritime Organization (IMO) will be hard to meet.

…as Brent Perry concludes.

EXPLORE SHIFT CLEAN ENERGY POLLING HERE