reports

Green shipping corridors: a holistic approach to decarbonising maritime

Urgent action is needed to address shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions

September 2, 2024

The UK Government made a pledge in the Clydebank Declaration at COP26 to establish six green shipping corridors by 2026. This report describes in detail a pathway to deliver, what could be the first in the UK, between Liverpool and Belfast. This route is approximately 130 nautical miles and is one of the busiest routes in the Irish Sea, connecting the two major UK cities. A green shipping corridor is defined by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UKSHORE) as zero emission maritime routes between two or more ports, and are seen as vital for encouraging the development of vessel and shoreside technology in clean maritime.

Maritime, shipping and the movement of goods and people in the region via its ports is a major economic driver for both Liverpool and Belfast, contributing £5BN in economic activity. However this activity also attracts significant global greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to poor air quality locally. The UK is committed to see these emissions reduce and recognises that as an Island Nation, this represents a sizeable challenge and opportunity to transition to low or net zero emissions. This report is a summation of a lot of focused work by a large stakeholder group in examining options for decarbonising a route linking the Ports of Liverpool and Belfast, to demonstrate it is possible and establish a blueprint available for scaling to other routes, perhaps initially in the Irish Sea Region and then further afield.

This report captures what is needed to establish a green shipping corridor and identifies 29 suitable pilot projects to develop the corridor further and secure a leading international role in green ports and shipping for the UK. Green shipping corridors require a systems approach to implementation and to consider each element that contributes directly to the reduction of carbon emissions or provides a part of the enabling environment to support this reduction. We have identified the existing assets and enabling components of the maritime ecosystem, including subjects such as fuel production and communication systems, as well as governance and skills. This is a substantive tome full of rich detail covering nationally applicable matters but through a focused place lens. Delivering a Green Shipping Corridor is complex, but this work has shown us that with a well motivated stakeholder group this can be broken down in to manageable and crucially investible projects ready for delivery.

This report is an output of an Innovate UK funded programme, Pulse, which examined a suite of challenges in the aviation and maritime sectors. The report has been prepared by Connected Places Catapult, working in collaboration with Royal HaskoningDHV, Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool, Queens University Belfast, and Mersey Maritime.

This report is part of a larger body of ongoing work to decarbonise the maritime sector, supported principally by the Department for Transport, Department for Business & Trade, the National Shipbuilding Office and Innovate UK. UKSHORE supported by Innovate UK has administered the Clean Maritime Demonstration programme, investing £206M of grants with private sector match funding since 2022 across a host of propulsion and infrastructure projects. This includes investing in selection of feasibility studies into Clean / Green Shipping Corridors between the UK and Europe, which are due to conclude by Spring 2025.