Webinar on "Decarbonising Shipping in India"

The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) and the Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF-SO) hosted a webinar on "Decarbonising Shipping in India" on Tuesday, 18 April 2023. This webinar was a deliverable agreed upon by the subworking group on Transport, Storage and Consumption of the Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force. 

More than 120 participants from the industry, public sector and research institutions joined the webinar. Ms. Ute Brockmann, Deputy Director General, Head of DE international Services, IGCC, welcomed the participants with her opening remarks. She mentioned that, according to the Global Maritime Forum, international shipping emits 2-3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and carries almost 80 per cent of global trade by volume.

The head of the Subworking Group on Transport, Storage and Consumption, Mr. Tom Mikus, Program Manager, NOW GmbH, gave insights into the challenges of the shipping industry.  In addition to being diverse, shipping is also one of the Hard-to-Abate sectors, where we face major technological challenges to achieve climate neutrality.

The session kickstarted with an interactive poll on topics most relevant to this group. The Q&A gathered the overall understanding of the group members on the key drivers for decarbonising the shipping sector in India. Most people voted for “Directive policies from Government” as a key driver, followed by “Breakthroughs in Technologies”. Mr. Rolf Behrndt, Hydrogen Expert, GIZ Germany led through the poll and moderated the presentations.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is responsible for the overall coordination and implementation of the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Dr. Prasad Chaphekar, Deputy Secretary, MNRE was invited to deliver his special address at the webinar. As highlighted in the Mission Document, Shipping and Port operations are among the key sectors likely to drive the future Green Hydrogen demand and trade. In this context, Dr. Chaphekar gave insight into the budget provisions for shipping and highlighted the focus within the funding schemes on generating green fuels and technologies to be used in shipping.  He also mentioned that pilot projects will also be supported in areas including emerging technologies for Green Hydrogen production, large scale storage of Hydrogen, energy storage etc.

Following the special remarks from MNRE, Ms. Ingrid Sidenvall Jegou, Project Director-Getting to Zero Coalition, Global Maritime Forum shared her insights on accelerating maritime shipping’s decarbonisation. Ms. Sidenvall introduced the Getting to Zero Coalition, which is an alliance of more than 200 organisations within the maritime, energy, infrastructure and finance sectors with the goal of getting commercially viable deep sea zero emission vessels powered by zero emission fuels into operation by 2030 towards full carbonisation by 2050. She underlined the potential of India as a leader in expanding green ports and producing green fuels due to its strong maritime connectivity and access to renewable energies. She mentioned that one of the key challenges in decarbonising shipping remains the closing of the price gap between traditional and zero emission fuels.

Ms. Sanne Henriksen, Head of Decarbonisation, Regulatory and Public Affairs, Maersk shared her perspective on the Upcoming Technology Landscape. She outlined the decarbonisation commitment of Maersk and their four main initiatives to reach their net zero targets- design carbon neutral vessels, drive innovation in new fuels, build carbon neutral products, and push for regulatory frameworks. With an ambitious target to become a net-zero company by 2040, the need to accelerate green fuel production to meet future demand and build green fuel partnerships was underlined.

After a brief discussion on the shipping of liquid hydrogen, Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), presented on the topic of  decarbonising shipping in India as a pathway for sustainable growth. As per Dr. Dhawan, 90% of India’s trading volume is transported by shipping, making it evident that the green transformation of this sector is inevitable if India is to achieve sustainable development. Dr. Dhawan also explained a potential Roadmap to the decarbonisation of the shipping industry.  

The presentations were followed by an open Q&A session, which was again moderated by Mr. Behrndt. Deliberations and substantial action points were propagated by different participants during the meeting, which will eventually feed into the Indo-German Green Hydrogen roadmap to be presented to our leaders. 

Please find the presentations below:

Presentation on Accelerating Maritime Shipping’s Decarbonisation by Ingrid Sidenvall Jegou

Presentation on Maersk's Decarbonisation Commitment by Sanne Henriksen

Presentation on Decarbonising Shipping in India as a Pathway for Sustainable Growth by Dr. Vibha Dhawan

Furthermore, recordings of the presentations can be found here: 

Knowledge Session "Decarbonising Shipping in India" - Youtube

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