– Tracking Progress: Marine Decarbonisation of the Global Fleet 2024

IMCA has analysed monthly data from January 2022 to December 2024 from Clarkson’s World Fleet Register's Green Technology Tracker, the Timeseries platform and the Renewables Intelligence Network. The goal of this document is to provide insights on the maritime sector green technology trends, focusing on the investments being made in clean fuel and decarbonisation of the global fleet. The analysis will be quarterly, and will aim to provide the members with clarity on the latest decarbonisation efforts of the global fleet.

The maritime sector is undergoing a significant shift toward decarbonisation, driven by the evolving landscape of climate regulations. For instance, the EU has already implemented the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), mandating ships to purchase allowances for their tank-to-wake (TtW) emissions, while the FuelEU Maritime will come in force in a few months (January 2025), mandating the use of low- and zero-GHG fuels from a well-to-wake (WtW) perspective for the shipping sector.

On an international level, in July 2023, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the 2023 IMO Strategy on the Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships. The strategy outlines four key levels of ambition:

1) Improving the energy efficiency of new ships to reduce their carbon intensity.

2) Achieving at least a 40% reduction in the carbon intensity of international shipping by 2030 compared to 2008 (a target retained from the Initial Strategy).

3) Increasing the use of zero or near-zero GHG emission technologies, fuels, and energy sources to at least 5% of international shipping’s energy consumption by 2030, with a goal of reaching 10%.

4) Ensuring that total GHG emissions from international shipping peak as soon as possible and reach net zero around 2050. The strategy also includes indicative checkpoints for reducing total GHG emissions by at least 20% (with an aspiration for 30%) by 2030, and at least 70% (aiming for 80%) by 2040.

The IMO has already agreed on a basket of measures under the “IMO net-zero framework”, that will help deliver these levels of ambition. The basket of measures will comprise of a technical measure putting limits on GHG intensity of fuels, and an economic measure putting a price on GHG emissions from shipping. It is expected that these measures will supersede the EU measures (i.e. EU ETS and FuelEU) as a global-wide GHG reduction framework for the maritime industry.

To meet these four levels of ambition and comply with the future IMO measures, there has been a clear uptake in alternative fuel capable vessels and green technologies over a relatively short period of time. The data in this report shows clear positive trends towards decarbonisation in both the global and the offshore fleets.

Being close to the end of 2024, there has been a noticeable increase in the ordering and deployment of vessels capable of alternative fuels in the past two years. Figures 1 and 2 showcase this uptake of alternative fuelled vessels, with the first highlighting existing fleet and the second highlighting orders placed these past two years.

Between January and November 2024, 729 units of 55.7m GT ordered were reported to have alternative fuel capability, equivalent to 50% of tonnage contracted and already exceeding the record alternative fuel capable volumes ordered in full year 2022 by nearly 20% (47.2m GT). Alternative fuel capable vessels contracted so far this year include 352 LNG capable vessels, 103 methanol capable units, 72 LPG capable ships and 180 battery/hybrid vessels. However, 7.4%* of the fleet on the water in tonnage terms is capable of using alternative fuels or propulsion, a share which could increase to ~9% by the end of 2025.

Of the total orderbook, 37.7% of tonnage is set to use LNG, 9.2% to use methanol, 2.0% to use LPG and ~3.1% due to use other alternative fuels including hydrogen, ethane, ammonia, biofuels and battery/hybrid propulsion. The most interesting points extracted from Figure 2 is first that orders for methanol capable vessels have increased 8.6 times over the period of January 2022 to December 2024, and secondly that ammonia vessels has seen a significant ramp up by 30 vessels during the course of slightly more than a year (September 2022 to December 2024).

Figure 1 – Trends in alternative fuelled vessels in the Global Fleet from January 2022 to December 2024

Figure 2 – Trends in alternative fuelled vessels in the Orderbook from January 2022 to December 2024

Clarkson’s recent report indicates that 37% of the fleet’s tonnage (approximately 10,214 ships) have installed Energy Saving Technologies (EST). According to Figure 3, in the last 2 years there has been an increase of 40.5% of vessels equipped with ESTs while the orderbook suggests that orders for ESTs have doubled between 2022 and 2024. ESTs include air lubrication systems, propeller ducts, Flettner rotors, wind kites and others.

SOx Scrubbers, as of December 2024, are fitted in 6,143 vessels, accounting to 29.2% of the global fleet’s GT, highlighting an increase of 30% over the past two years. The orderbook for such technologies indicates that there is a significant demand for Scrubbers, with orders accounting for 15.8% of the global fleet. ‘Eco’ ships have also seen a very major uptake as the orderbook suggests that 85.1% of the GT ordered will be fitted with ‘Eco’ engines.

Figure 3 – Trends in ESTs, SOx Scrubbers and ‘Eco’ ships in the Global Fleet from January 2022 to December 2024

Figure 4 – Trends in ESTs and ‘Eco’ ships in the Orderbook from January 2022 to December 2024

• Data and further insights available from: World Fleet Register (clarksons.net)
  
  
• 2024, Clarksons, Fuelling Transition: Tracking the Economic Impact of Emission Reductions & Fuel Changes