The UK announced its dedication to making maritime greener, and pioneer new technology that could make journeys by sea as green as they were hundreds of years ago.
Key topics of the new regulation
- Government launches new unit, UK SHORE, to tackle shipping emissions and advance the UK towards a sustainable shipping future
- £206 million new funding to accelerate research into and development of clean maritime technologies and create skilled jobs across the country
- Clean maritime competition given multi-year extension for UK organisations to accelerate zero emission shipping technologies
According to the UK government, thousands of ships, cruises and vessels will become greener and cleaner with £206 million investment to support zero emission sailing and skilled maritime jobs, as part of the government’s shipbuilding strategy.
More specifically, the government will create its first office purely dedicated to making maritime greener, pioneering new research and development of technology that could make journeys by sea as green as they were hundreds of years ago.
Known as the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE), the new unit will be housed in the Department for Transport, building on the success of the UK’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) launched last year.
Dedicated to creating a world free from shipping emissions, UK SHORE will implement a research and development programme, and will work in partnership with industry to tackle supply and demand issues with shipbuilding and help build greener vessels.
UK SHORE will also help develop the infrastructure to enable zero emission technologies and the physical infrastructure needed to power these new-age vessels.
The programme will include a multitude of technologies including hydrogen, electric and ammonia, and this funding will place the UK among the leading nations in the development of new and innovative vessels and port infrastructure, supporting its rich maritime industry and coastal communities.
Funding under UK SHORE will relaunch manufacturing hotspots across the UK, creating new skilled jobs and opportunities while levelling up local economies.
I want UK SHORE to take the industry back to the future. The age of the sail was the first green maritime age; new technology will bring us to a second green age
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said, reiterating the government’s commitment to wiping out carbon emissions from transport.
In addition, the funding boost is a major step towards the UK government’s aim for all vessels to be zero emission by 2050, and signals a green industrial revolution that will transform the shipbuilding enterprise into a technological powerhouse, strengthening the UK industry’s competitiveness.
The establishment of UK SHORE and extension of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition can enable us to create the innovative green solutions at home and, in turn, export these across the world
Maritime UK CEO, Ben Murray, concluded.
The UK also announced the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) that contains plans to boost the competitiveness and productivity of UK shipbuilding, which the Prime Minister has identified as one of his major policy priorities.
This includes more than £200m funding for green maritime projects through a new UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, a new government team to open up exporting opportunities worth up to £600 million, and establishing a taskforce to drive new skills and talent into the industry.
The NSS also includes a 30-year, cross-government shipbuilding pipeline of more than 150 new vessels, to provide certainty for yards, and re-introduces the Home Shipbuilding Guarantee Scheme (HSGS), giving firms a government-backed guarantee for loan repayments to reduce financing costs.
