China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has the potential to become a major provider of green fuels which can help in the fight against climate change, but greater collaborative effort is needed to accelerate progress, according to Ludovic Renou, CEO of CMA CGM China, part of the French shipping firm CMA CGM Group. Carbon dioxide from the nation’s factories can be captured and combined with green hydrogen to make low-carbon fuels such as synthetic methane and green methanol, Renou said. “China has one of the biggest feedstocks of raw materials for green fuels, this is where we need to see whether the feedstock can be transformed rapidly. We need collaborative working groups at multiple levels, provincial and national. Today, such effort is a bit lacking in structure, a bit individual and spread out.”
CMA CGM Group, the world’s third-largest container shipping company with a carrying capacity of 5 million TEU, said in September that it would create a €1.5 billion fund along with its partners to invest in fuel decarbonization technology ventures, as part of its efforts to achieve its net zero emissions goal by 2050. The investment to be made over five years will focus on scaling up production of green fuels, such as biofuels, biomethane, synthetic methane and green methanol, for use in ships, trucks, trains and aircraft. While green fuels made from agricultural or municipal waste have the potential to cut shipping carbon emissions by 67%, the current volumes are too small, Renou said. Meanwhile, synthetic production of green fuels that combine captured carbon emissions and green hydrogen can only be viable if the costs are cut substantially. “We are working with some potential Chinese partners to develop green energy. CMA CGM can commit to purchase green fuels from China under potential agreements,” Renou said.
Last month, CMA CGM China and the Port of Shanghai signed an agreement to supply its berthed ships with onshore power at competitive prices, thus limiting the use of bunker fuel to generate electricity and reducing carbon emissions. The number of CMA CGM vessels likely to be hooked up to the onshore power supply in Shanghai is expected to rise to 50 by the middle of this year, from 13 at the end of 2022. Last March, one of its vessels became the first to be refueled with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in China, putting the nation’s bunkering industry on course for its energy transition. LNG use in ships can reduce their carbon emissions by 20% compared with conventional fuel, the South China Morning Post reports.
