About the Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.

The Silk Alliance is a coalition of 13 leading cross-supply chain stakeholders brought together by the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub to develop a fleet fuel transition strategy that can enable the establishment of a highly scalable Green Corridor Cluster, starting with the intra-Asia container trade in Singapore and the wider Asia region.

The decarbonisation of the shipping industry has been an area of strategic focus for Lloyd’s Register for more than a decade. In 2011, we were a founding member, and the first classification society, to join the Sustainable Shipping Initiative. It brings together leading organisations to improve the sustainability of the shipping industry, in terms of social, environmental and economic impacts.

The United Nations Global Compact is a worldwide movement of sustainable companies and stakeholders, working for responsible business principles and achievement of the UN Sustainable Development goals. Lloyd’s Register is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, which encourages businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.

Lloyd’s Register is a founding member of the UN Group for Sustainable Ocean Business, which convenes leaders in ocean industry along with the UN, world governments, academia and civil society to work towards the sustainable use of the oceans.

The ambition of the Getting to Zero Coalition is to have commercially viable ZEVs operating along deep sea trade routes by 2030, supported by the necessary infrastructure for scalable zero-carbon energy sources including production, distribution, storage and bunkering.

A collaborative effort to work on producing a zero-carbon emitting deep-sea tanker using ammonia as a fuel. The Joint Development Project (JDP) involves a collaboration between Lloyd’s Register, MISC Berhad, Samsung Heavy Industries and MAN Energy Solutions, Yara International ASA, and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Lloyd’s Register supports financial incentivisation and innovation in the global shipping industry. It assisted in the creation of the Poseidon Principles, a global framework for responsible ship finance, that provides a pathway for integrating climate considerations into lending decisions, to promote decarbonization in international shipping.

The Resilience Shift was created by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Arup, who have come together to assure the future of critical infrastructure. Their Resilience4Ports initiative is a multi-stakeholder, whole system approach to enhance the resilience of global supply chains.

Resilience4Ports takes place in the context of the multiple global drivers of change to critical infrastructure systems that ports and supply chains face, in particular decarbonisation technology and climate change. The initiative brings together public and private stakeholders together to define shared societal, environmental and economic outcomes.

In partnership with the UK’s University Maritime Advisory Services, Lloyd’s Register published a series of studies on low carbon transitions pathways, focusing on engine development, vessel design and operational implications relating to the decarbonisation ambitions set out by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). They identified milestones for the safety, technical, social, economic and environmental aspects of deep-sea, zero-emission vessels. They are available to download on our library page.

Passenger ships are the most affected by the 2030 GHGs emission targets of the IMO directive as they have growing pressure from their customers and habitants near ports for a clean environment. To address these challenges, the Nautilus project aims at developing, evaluating and validating a highly efficient and dynamic integrated marine energy system fuelled by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for long-haul passenger ships. The Nautilus consortium consists of 15 partners with an overall budget of €7.89M over four years with 100% grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Read more about Nautilus.

FASTWATER aims to start a fast transitionary path to move waterborne transport away from fossil fuels and reduce its pollutant emissions to zero impact, through the use of methanol fuel. The FASTWATER consortium consists of 15 partners with a strong track record on methanol projects and includes shipyards, a shipowner, engine manufacturers, an equipment supplier, a classification society, a methanol producer, a major port and research institutes. The project has an overall budget of €6.35M over four years with a grant of €4.99M from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Read more about FASTWATER.

The Interreg 2 Seas project, ISHY, started in February 2019 with 15 partners and 45 observer partners across Europe and will continue until the end of 30 June 2022. ISHY aims to increase the adoption of low-carbon technologies and applications in sectors that have the potential for a high reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. With 15 partners, the overall budget for this collaborative project is €15.98M with a maximum European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of €8.8M. Read more about ISHY.

The HyMethShip project aims to drastically reduce emissions and improve the efficiency of waterborne transport at the same time. During the three-year project duration, the HyMethShip project will undertake risk and safety assessments to ensure that the system fulfils safety requirements for on-board use. It will also consider the rules and regulations under development for low flashpoint fuels. With 13 partners, the overall budget for this collaborative project is €9.28M with a maximum European Grant of €8.43M. Read more about HyMethShip.

The Vancouver Maritime Centre for Climate (VMCC) is an industry led initiative dedicated to accelerating the transition to a zero-emissions shipping industry in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Through collaboration and information sharing it facilitates the creation of joint industry projects that enable the regional maritime and shipping industry to decarbonize.

The Blue Sky Maritime Coalition is accelerating the transition of waterborne transportation in Canada and the United States toward net-zero GHG emissions.  It does this by facilitating collaboration among industry stakeholders regionally to create projects that deliver significant near-term reductions in GHG emissions and lead to commercially viable net-zero emissions.

The Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub will provide the leadership, collaboration and evidence needed to shape safe and sustainable pathways to the decarbonisation of the shipping industry.

Decarbonisation as a general term refers to the reduction and control of manmade greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions from shipping are a consequence of the carbon intensity of shipping’s energy supply, the energy efficiency of shipping, and the demand for shipping.

Shipping, as an industry, is currently dependent on fossil-based fuels for propulsion, therefore decarbonisation is a transformation away from fossil-based fuels to zero-carbon energy sources. This requires the development of a fleet of ships that derive their energy consumption from zero-carbon energy sources, and the development of supply chains that can deliver those zero-carbon energy sources at sufficient volume and in sufficient locations.

The shipping industry needs leadership, collaboration and evidence-based direction to achieve its decarbonisation goals. The Maritime Decarbonisation Hub will create and share evidence, insight and knowledge about the transition to a decarbonised world fleet.

The Hub will work in partnership with other forward-looking organisations to deliver credible thought leadership to the entire industry - regulators, policy makers, investors, owners, operators and charterers and customers. It will demonstrate the costs, benefits, opportunities and risks of potential pathways to decarbonise.

We will lead the industry by:

• Identifying the pathways to a decarbonised sector
• Shifting the narrative by creating independent thought leadership and collaborating in key industry forums
• Influencing policy and guiding regulation with advice on the efficacy of potential measures, and the practicality of their implementation
• Reaching across the supply chain to provide end-to-end assurance for zero-carbon fuels, at scale, in the right locations and delivered safely

We will create practical solutions, such as:

• Building pilots and prototypes to establish practical knowledge based on the real-world application of technology and the mitigation of risk
• Creating new tools to help all stakeholders understand the future implications of today’s business decisions
• Applying our knowledge to ships in service and supporting a growing range of shipping organisations

The Hub will not take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to zero-carbon energy sources. Instead, it will provide the evidence needed by the relevant decision-makers in the shipping industry to transition with regulatory, economic and societal considerations.

Lloyd’s Register is one of the world’s leading technical authorities in the maritime sector. It provides shipping classification services to almost a quarter of the new ships being designed and produced in the world each year. That means it has strong connections within the sector, and a deep understanding of the technical challenges that decarbonisation of the world fleet will present to ship owner, operators, investors, fuel suppliers and other stakeholders.

Lloyd’s Register has already been involved in many of the first steps in the decarbonisation of the shipping industry:

• In 2017, our research was first to point out that zero-emission vessels needed to be in use by 2030, for shipping to be in line with the UN Paris Agreement target, and the IMO ambition of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 2050
• More than 50 new fuel/battery hybrid powered ships are currently under Lloyd’s Register classification
• Viking Grace was the first wind–assisted passenger ship in the world, approved by Lloyd’s Register in 2018
• The first installation of a wind-powered Flettner rotor in a product tanker, the Maersk Pelican, had its performance verified by Lloyd's Register
• The first vessel approved to use methanol as a fuel, Stena Germanica (the first IGF code-compliant methanol-fueled vessel) was approved by Lloyd’s Register
• Lloyd’s Register has carried out economic feasibility and development studies of bunkering procedures for ports around the world

The decarbonisation of the shipping industry has been an area of strategic focus for Lloyd’s Register for more than a decade. We were a founding member, and the first class society, to join the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, which has brought together leading organisations to improve the sustainability of the shipping industry, in terms of social, environmental and economic impacts.

Lloyd’s Register was the first shipping classification society to become a member the Global Maritime Forum, an international not-for-profit organization committed to shaping the future of global seaborne trade. We were instrumental in the creation of the ambition statement signed by 120 members of the Forum’s ‘Getting to Zero Coalition’. The Coalition is committed to ensuring that commercially viable deep sea zero emission vessels powered by zero emission fuels are in operation by 2030.

Lloyd’s Register is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, which encourages businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. It is a founding member of the UN Group for Sustainable Ocean Business, which convenes leaders in ocean industry along with the UN, world governments, academia and civil society to work towards the sustainable use of the oceans.

Lloyd’s Register supports economic incentivisation and innovation across the maritime industry as the first classification society involved in the Poseidon Principles, an initiative led by a group of the major banks designed to encourage lending decisions that promote global decarbonisation of shipping.

Yes. As one of the world’s leading shipping classification societies, Lloyd’s Register prides itself on giving expert, independent opinion, free from outside influence. Our existing body of research into decarbonisation demonstrates that autonomy, which will continue in the work of the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.

The Hub will be overseen by a Stakeholder Panel of representatives from the shipping industry, who will shape the strategy of the Hub, with a Governance Board of representatives from Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The Hub’s governance system will produce regular reports about its work and outcomes, to maintain transparency and independence.

As one of the world’s leading classification societies, Lloyd’s Register prides itself on providing expert, independent opinion, free from outside influence. Our existing body of evidence-based research into decarbonisation demonstrates that autonomy, which will continue in the work of the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.

The Hub is a ring-fenced and recognisable team within the Lloyd’s Register Marine & Offshore business stream, reporting into a Programme Manager who is accountable for ensuring that plans and activities are managed and reported to the Hub’s Governance Board.

That Governance Board will consist of subject matter experts from Lloyd’s Register Group, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and strategic industry partners. The Hub will produce regular reports about its work, in order to maintain transparency and independence.