Fossil fuels to clean energy
ready for sustainable change, and it is only a matter of time before diesel and petrol cars are completely phased out. Indeed, the UK Government has recently launched grants for scrapping out-dated diesel and petrol models that do not adhere to recent emissions guidelines. However, it takes time for people to adapt to change and switch from a known and comfortable lifestyle. Furthermore, much of this data comes from the UK which is a highly developed country. Change will, undoubtedly, be far harder in less-developed parts of the world and change must occur globally to make a serious and long-lasting positive impact on the environment. Another large sector in the transport industry that has a significant impact on the environment is sea travel, especially commercial shipping. With globalization continuing to grow, commercial shipping has a large effect on the environment, accounting for ‘ 3% of all global CO2 emissions, which is roughly 1000 MT of CO2 per year ’. 9 This is already a high number of emissions and is ‘ set to increase by 50% ’ 10 by 2050. As ships use ‘ some of the dirtiest fuel on earth ’, 11 they cause massive harm to the environment through emissions and oil leakage which cause many economic, social, and environmental consequences. There are better alternatives, however, such as green shipping fuels like hydrogen and e-ammonia. They represent promising new options since they are made from renewable electricity sources. While grey hydrogen is produced with fossil fuels and, therefore, has a carbon footprint, green hydrogen is made using renewable clean energy in an electrolysis process. And ‘ green hydrogen can be really emission-free on a full lifecycle basis ’. 12 However, this process is expensive and ‘ currently just 0.1% of hydrogen is made using it, ’ 13 as it requires a lot of energy to produce. However, production is becoming even more efficient by the day and change to cleaner commercial shipping is, hopefully, a very real possibility for the future. Within the shipping industry, it seems that in order to make change economically sustainable we must increase the demand for change. ‘ Fuel producers need to see some legitimate demand in order to invest into its production, so it’s sort of like a chicken/egg problem – whether the ship technology develops first, or the fuel side develops first .’ 14 This shows than people are reluctant to change and take the risk and the potential financial hit. To see economically sustainable change, people need to want to change, especially within the shipping industry. Currently, I think the best way to increase demand is for ship producers to make green-hydrogen compatible engines so that hydrogen producers witness actual demand and increase production in order to kick-start change. To make this economically sustainable, rather like with cars, people need time to adapt to change in order be able to maintain their current lifestyles. For example, though a bold move, the banning of fossil fuel shipping completely would mean that many companies would be unable to trade and ship their goods. This would be economically detrimental to the world as well as damage millions of everyday lives. To effect change, the older fossil fuel ships should slowly be phased out of service and replaced with environmentally friendly ships that run on sustainable, green, and renewable fuels like green 9 See https://www.transportenvironment.org/challenges/ships/. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Marie Hubatova - ‘Green hydrogen can be really emission - free on a full lifecycle basis,’ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201127-how-hydrogen-fuelcould-decarbonize-shipping. 13 See https://www.transportenvironment.org/challenges/ships/. 14 See www.theicct.org.cn/en/staff-member/xiaoli-mao/.
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