Maersk, the world’s largest container carrier, has set out an ambitious goal of cutting all carbon emissions and is seeking industry collaboration to provide zero-carbon shipping by 2050.

“Climate and CO2 emissions is one of the largest societal issues we have,” Maersk chief operating officer Søren Toft told Lloyd’s List in an interview. “It is threatening the world and as a business leader and as a father I find it very important that we find some solutions to this issue.”

Maersk wants carbon neutral vessels to be available by 2030 and is seeking an acceleration in new innovations. The Danish line said research and development was key to taking the shipping industry away from fossil-based technology.

“Maersk has improved efficiency over the past 10 years and we are leading the industry, but it is not just enough to have improved our relative emissions; we need to also reduce our absolute emissions,” Mr Toft said.

While admitting that the target was “aspirational”, Mr Toft said that given the 20- to 25-year lifespan of ships, that the time for action was now.

“In the next five to 10 years we have to find carbon-neutral propulsion solutions,” he said. “We are putting out a marker. It is a game changer and a call to action for the industry because we cannot do this alone.”

Maersk wants to work with all the constituents in the supply chain, be they current manufacturers, suppliers or competitors, and is seeking to tap into new innovations and work with governments around the world.

“For us it is important that we live up to and exceed the UN goals that countries and we at Maersk have signed up to,” Mr Toft said.

“We will have to form solutions across industries and bodies. We don’t have exactly every answer for how that will be done but elements around the development of new fuels will be an area where we will be more active in and will be working with other players.”

Maersk has invested over $1bn in energy efficiency over the last five years and has a team of over 50 engineers working on carbon reduction technology. Those engineers would continue to do what they do today but at an increasing level would also work with other parties outside Maersk, Mr Toft said.

“We would also like to work with regulators to find out if there are ways that we can together find things that make societal and economic sense at the same time.”

Maersk is planning to initiate “open and collaborative dialogue” with all parties during 2019.

The cost of developments would be met by improved efficiency and lower costs, Mr Toft said.

“The great thing about carbon is that there is a very good correlation between improving emissions, which is good for society and good for the planet, and improving one’s efficiency,” he said. “It is that nice link that we need to bank on. The solutions we need to find need to be sustainable but they also need to be economical over time.”

Maersk has already improved efficiency by 50% over the past 10 years but is still responsible for around 36m tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

While the IMO has set a goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2050, Maersk seeks to go much further than this.

“The IMO is a very important partner in this arena,” Mr Toft said. “We support and welcome the actions and given our announcement we hope that we can together set even further ambitions over the coming years. It goes without saying we cannot do this on our own. It is a call to action for the whole industry and therefore we need strong support and collaboration with IMO.”

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