Maritime Transport Research (Jan 2022)
Toward a harmonization of sustainability criteria for alternative marine fuels
Abstract
The discussion around shipping decarbonization has accelerated rapidly in 2020 and 2021. The growing studies on alternative marine fuels based on different criteria are indicative of both the complexities involved in marine fuels evaluation and absence of a consistent framework for assessment of alternative marine fuels from a holistic perspective. There is a recent call for an integrated evaluation model for alternative marine fuels with respect to economic, environmental, and social criteria. In this study, we develop and present a comprehensive and integrated set of sustainability criteria that are relevant for evaluating alternative marine fuels. First, we provide an overview of different alternative marine fuel pathways and assess the current challenges associated with adopting alternative marine fuels. Second, we develop 18 sustainability criteria, identified through the academic and trade literature and validated through a multi-stakeholder participatory approach (based on the input from 70 maritime experts), for a systematic and consistent evaluation of marine fuels. Third, based on an in-depth survey, we evaluate maritime stakeholder perspectives on the importance of sustainability criteria. And finally, we provide a discussion of key policy implications and areas for future studies. Our analysis reveals the current degree of agreement amongst maritime stakeholders in the debate about the importance of multiple, and often conflicting, criteria for evaluating marine fuels; the top five most important criteria are regulatory compliance, life cycle GHG, fuel cost, air pollution, and occupational health and safety. The analysis also looks at the importance ranking of each criterion from the perspective of individual maritime stakeholder groups. These findings provide decision-makers with a platform to understand priorities and interests of maritime stakeholder groups for the choice of marine fuels.
