Wärtsilä: No single solution for shipping decarbonization

APRIL 23, 2018 — Wärtsilä has welcomed the agreement on GHG reduction by shipping reached at IMO’s recent MEPC meeting.

“This long-awaited agreement represents an important milestone for global shipping. It is critical that we have an industry-wide framework for reducing emissions, and this sends a clear signal that we should all join forces in promoting carbon-free shipping,” says Jaakko Eskola, Wärtsilä’s CEO. “The next extremely important step must be to define concrete abatement measures, and to establish a clear roadmap together with the industry and decision-making bodies.”

Wärtsilä has long focused its development work on introducing technologies that enable shipping to significantly lower its environmental load.

“It is vital to note that there is no single solution for decarbonizing the shipping sector while also controlling the other pollutants,” Eskola points out. “A clean-shipping future must be based on the combining of different technologies and various solutions. These will include cleaner fuels, efficient vessel designs, hybrid propulsion technologies, and intelligent vessels.”

Increased adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel will be needed to accelerate the reduction in GHG, says Wärtsilä, noting that the progress already made in LNG-related innovations can lower emissions of GHG from vessels by as much as 30 percent.

Digitalization is benefitting society at large and will have a positive impact on shipping. Wärtsilä’s Smart Marine vision, which utilizes high levels of digitalization and connectivity, aims at increasing overall resource efficiency, minimizing the environmental burden, and increasing the safety and reliability of maritime transport.

“We should look beyond just vessel-level emissions. To be truly effective, we need to target everything involved in moving goods and passengers. At Wärtsilä, we envision a Smart Marine Ecosystem wherein smart vessels sail between smart ports in an environment of optimal efficiency and minimized emissions,” says Eskola.