Vision for Sustainable Shipping in the EU: Fuelling the Future of Transport

Speaker: Mr Jaakko Eskola, President of Ship Power and Executive Vice President of Wärtsilä Corporation.

Climate change is the major overriding environmental issue of our time and one of the greatest challenges facing global energy and environmental policy makers. How transport is fuelled in the future plays a major role in mitigating the impacts of climate change and achieving Europe’s energy goals. With this in mind, the Commission has launched a Clean Power for Transport package this January, to help transform Europe’s energy supply for transport.

A key part of this initiative is developing a comprehensive package on LNG for shipping. The maritime sector is vital for Europe’s economy, with around 90% of world trade carried by ships. Although shipping is one of the least environmentally damaging forms of commercial transport, there is increasing concern about the sector’s emissions.

Solutions and choices for the transport sector – like LNG for shipping – also have important implications for the EU’s energy goals. For example, rolling out LNG infrastructure will help Europe increase its security of energy supply. Thus, sustainability questions and solutions in both the energy and transport sectors are highly intertwined. It is important to include sustainability of transport – particularly a vital sector like shipping – in the evaluation of choices concerning energy and the climate.

Wärtsilä is now presenting its vision for Sustainable Shipping which highlights the possibilities of the shipping industry in providing an environmentally sound transport mode and outlines the steps that the industry needs to take to make it even more climate friendly, without forgetting the present state of the shipping market.

Mr. Eskola will discuss alternative fuels, and ways to improve efficiency and to reduce the overall impact of shipping on the environment, linking how a sustainable shipping sector will help achieve EU energy and climate goals. Thus, he sets the scene for a lively debate on how the EU can help improve the sustainability of this vital mode of transport.