Press Release: The Jones Act, significant coastal and inland shipping activity, geographically favourable conditions and technology expertise give the U.S. enormous potential to lead shipping’s decarbonisation.
A new report by UMAS, commissioned by The Ocean Conservancy titled “The Maritime Fleet of the USA—the current status and potential for the future” shows, for the first time, the scale of U.S. shipping fleet emissions and opportunities to decarbonise the sector. In 2018, carbon emissions from all U.S.-flagged vessels amounted to around 26 million tonnes, approximately 2.4% of global shipping emissions. Domestic shipping voyages accounted for about 70% of carbon emissions from the U.S.-flagged shipping fleet, which presents a unique opportunity for U.S. actions to effectively decarbonize the American maritime sector.
More than 40% of the energy used by the U.S. fleet could be replaced with zero emissions solutions this decade. The report estimates that 17% of the current U.S. fleet’s energy demands can be substituted with electrification. This would mean, for example, ships relying on battery electrification for shorter voyages or ships running off onshore electric power sources when in harbor. The Gulf of Mexico and northwest coasts of the U.S. are primed to move towards electrification given existing routes. A further 24% of the U.S. fleet’s energy demands, oftentimes coming from longer voyages than battery power alone can support, can be met with zero-emissions fuels such as green hydrogen. These technologies are already available and adopting them would require minimal infrastructure updates and can happen within the existing renewal schedule and will not require needing to scrap and rebuild ships ahead of schedule. The Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes are top candidates for the adoption of zero-emission fuels.
“There is enormous potential for the U.S. to be a global leader in maritime decarbonization. This is due to 3 main factors: energy and technology expertise, lots of coastal and inland shipping activity and geographically favorable conditions. Our models show that this combination makes the U.S a prime candidate for developing domestic and international green corridors.” – says Dr Jean-Marc Bonello, Principal Consultant at UMAS. “The current ambitious administration has the chance to make this a decade of change for the industry in the U.S. at the time when rapid action is needed to achieve science-based climate targets.”
