In 2030 Europe’s shipping industry will need over 6.3 million metric tonnes of LNG to power its growing fleet of gas-powered ships – enough to power 7 millions homes – a new Transport & Environment (T&E) study shows.
This will only increase Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, says T&E, which has labelled the switch to LNG as irresponsible in times of energy crisis.
By 2030 nearly a quarter of Europe’s shipping could be running on LNG at a time where we should be reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. This cannot be allowed to happen
Constance Dijkstra, LNG campaigner at T&E, said.
In addition, the T&E study shows that Europe’s policymakers should also be worried about the impact the switch to LNG-powered shipping will have on energy security. In fact, the analysis shows that over 200,000 households could be supplied with the gas required to power today’s fleet of LNG-powered ships.
With LNG set to power a quarter of EU shipping’s energy needs in 2030, the number of households could rise to 7 million – enough to heat all the homes in Belgium or Sweden
Preventing the uptake of gas in shipping must happen now, says T&E, before all segments of the maritime industry fall into the gas trap. Today, tankers carrying LNG represent the biggest share of LNG-powered vessels, but other types of ships are being tempted by the gas option. In 2018, only seven LNG container ships were built. That number has more than doubled in 2022 with 171 LNG container ships on order around the world today.
With gas supplies so tight and prices so high, there’s simply no justification for shipping companies to switch to gas. It isn’t even good for the climate. The EU should ditch plans to promote fossil gas in shipping and promote green hydrogen-based fuels instead
Constance Dijkstra added.
Recently, Europe’s lawmakers voted in favour of a 2% mandate for green hydrogen-based fuels. Commenting on the vote, Transport & Environment welcomed the world’s first measure to decarbonise shipping fuels, but says much more will be needed to get shipping to zero emissions.