SHIPOWNERS will have to start placing orders for vessels that will operate on low-carbon fuel or energy sources by 2029. But the shipping fuels and energy sources of the future do not yet exist, at least not in any kind of scale, and that transition is going to require around $2 trillion of capital investment along with wholesale reorganisation of bunker sector. 

Gone are the days of choosing one or two similar fuels at the pump; the future will hold a plethora of different fuels from multiple sources, and potentially very different pumps.

Ahead lies a complete shift in the way we look at shipping and think about its daily commercial operations, but that era-defining transition requires practical decisions to be taken now. Fleet renewal will continue and ships that will potentially operate for the next 20 years will need to be financed, built and operated.

So what are the practical and pragmatic choices open to shipowners building today and what are the prospects for ships expected to operate through a regulatory and energy transition that will ultimately make even the greenest choices today redundant before the end of that asset’s operational lifecycle?

Christopher Wiernicki, chairman, president and chief executive of the classification society ABS, returns to the podcast this week to discuss whether shipping can future proof shipbuilding decisions now while working its way down the decarbonisation pathways ahead.

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