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E-Mission control
from WorkBoat March 2023
by WorkBoat
Abig topic these days, both in the news and elsewhere, is climate change. More speci cally, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The subject of emissions, and how to reduce them, has seemingly consumed the maritime sector in recent years. Sure, reducing emissions is a worthy goal for us and the planet. But the workboat industry’s point of view is “why pick on us” when the maritime sector is only responsible for a very small percentage of U.S. transportation-related GHG emissions? (See the cover story written by Bruce Buls that begins on page 28.)
In 2018, the International Maritime Organization adopted a decarbonization goal for its members: Reduce total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050, compared with 2008. Many countries have also established individual decarbonization goals, often promising to diminish GHG to net zero by 2050.
In the recently released U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, the federal government has of cially committed to reducing GHG emissions from our transportation sector to net zero by 2050. “To address the climate crisis,” it said in the introduction to the report, “we must eliminate nearly all GHG emissions from the sector by 2050.”
That means every cargo vessel, pushboat, tugboat, tour boat, ferry, OSV, SOV, dredge and patrol boat must be powered by carbonless energy in 27 years, at most. That’s a huge amount of diesel and gasoline propulsion and
Krapf, Editor in Chief dkrapf@divcom.com
auxiliary power that would have to be replaced or modi ed. Is this possible?
Jason Blume has serious doubts. “I think it’s a very bold challenge, but, no, I don’t think it’s possible,” said Blume, North American sales manager at MAN Engines & Components Inc. That’s based on the limits of current technology and “how we are going to get to that [future] technology” in a relatively short period of time. It will be extremely dif cult to eliminate all GHG emissions from our sector, but a “transition to a sustainable transportation future,” as the national blueprint said, is a worthy goal.
