The ship.energy podcast

Evelyne analyses the different proposals submitted by different countries ahead of the MEPC 84 meeting, which will mark the first time the committee reconvenes since the extraordinary session, in October 2025, that was expected to formally adopt the first global greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing mechanism for shipping but was instead adjourned for a year.  With Pacific Island States and Brazil calling...

We take stock of the latest developments in IMO’s work to update seafarer training requirements for the arrival of new fuels and technologies. Podcast highlights Arvind hails the two sets of interim training guidelines for seafarers working on ships using methanol and ammonia as fuel, which were agreed at the IMO’s HTW Sub-Committee in February, as ‘a big step ahead’ and a ‘great achievement.’ He...

 We unveil how some e-fuel producers are progressing their projects despite the uncertainty around the fate of a global pricing mechanism for shipping’s GHG emissions. Podcast highlights In this episode, Lara explains how the FuelEU Maritime regulation, with its requirements on the GHG intensity of the energy used on ships to ratchet up from 2030, was instrumental in sealing a 10-year binding offt...

We ask what a sensible approach to decarbonisation can look like with the new Marine Fuels Transition Lead for Soya Group, which partly owns UECC, Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Wallenius Sol.  Podcast highlights Daniel argues that shipping companies should move ahead of regulatory requirements on decarbonisation and start integrating alternative fuels into their operations despite uncertainty around th...

Shipping companies Ardmore and Stena Bulk discuss how they have navigated the first year of the FuelEU Maritime regulation. Podcast highlights Ardmore’s Chief Operating Officer, Robert Gaina , explains how the company, which operates 25 chemical and product tankers, has decided to comply with FuelEU Maritime by bunkering biofuels on selected voyages. Describing how the new regulation, which sets a...

DNV’s Global Decarbonization Director analyses the main trends from the alternative-fuelled vessel orderbook in 2025, and sheds light on what to expect in 2026. Jason Stefanatos Jason Stefanatos is Global Decarbonization Director at DNV, a role which he has held since 2023. He joined the classification society 15 years ago, having previously worked in a technical role for the Hellenic Navy and as...

Representatives from academia, the bunkering industry and environmental NGOs reflect on some of the positive developments that marked 2025 and share their main wish for 2026. Speakers: Tristan Smith is Professor of Energy and Transport at the UCL Energy Institute, where he leads a research group focused on the global shipping industry. He attends MEPC meetings as a delegate of IMarEST and is a con...

Irene Rosberg, Director of the Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics at the Copenhagen Business School – which is widely known as The Blue MBA – explains why this globally recognised course came into being nearly 25 years ago, how it has evolved by keeping a finger on the pulse of a rapidly changing maritime sector, and what skills ‘fit-for-purpose’ leaders need today to grow and succeed, and, m...

In this conversation, Paul Hexter lifts the veil on some of the practical challenges that Waterfront Shipping experienced since the first seven methanol dual-fuel vessels joined its fleet in 2016. He emphasises the central role of onboard teams and shipowners in solving technical teething issues around pilot fuel and lubricating oil, and in helping improve the technology from the first to the seco...

The CEO of green analytics firm GENA Solutions examines the impact of the one-year delay of the IMO Net-Zero Framework on renewable fuel production projects, and on future ammonia and methanol volumes available for shipping. Podcast highlights While it is still too early to measure the full effect of the IMO Net-Zero Framework postponement, Vitalii explains why he has no doubt that the pipeline of...

In this special episode, we analyse the implications of the IMO Net-Zero Framework postponement with representatives of the shipping industry, Pacific Island States and environmental NGOs who attended the extraordinary MEPC meeting. John Taukave, researcher at the Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport, describes the outcome of the extraordinary MEPC session, where a majority of IMO member s...

As countries prepare for a decisive vote on the IMO Net-Zero Framework, the EU Commission expresses confidence that the first global pricing mechanism for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping will be adopted.  Podcast highlights In this conversation, the EU Commission’s Director of Waterborne Transport, Fotini Ioannidou, explains why she remains confident that the IMO Net-Zer...

Cruise company Carnival Corporation unpacks the learning from its experience spearheading shore power in this new episode of the First Movers series. Podcast highlights Marcel explains how a combination of geography, available renewable electricity supplies and community support led Carnival Corporation to develop shore power in Juneau, Alaska, back in 2001.  Nearly 25 years later, he acknowledges...

In this episode, we examine the potential of ammonia to take off as a marine fuel, by considering trends on both the production and demand sides.  Although numbers of ammonia-fuelled vessels are lower at present than LNG or methanol, Sofia sees clear signs in the global orderbooks that ammonia is gaining momentum as a marine fuel.  She believes that the market is likely to first emerge among ammon...

The Executive Director of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, Helene Tofte, unpacks some of the main reasons why the country seems to have a head start on the energy transition – from the impact of ownership structures on individual companies’ willingness to invest for the long term, to the presence of industry clusters to foster collaboration on new technologies.  Data from the Norwegian Shipo...

In this episode, GCMD’s CEO Prof. Lynn Loo unpacks the learnings from two landmark pilots: ship-to-ship ammonia transfers in the Pilbara and a demonstration of an end-to-end value chain for onboard captured CO₂ in China. She describes how safety risks, including toxicity, were managed during the first ship-to-ship transfer of liquid ammonia between two gas carriers, which was carried out in Wester...

In this episode, BV’s maritime head details why he believes that shipping needs ‘radical ideas’ to achieve its decarbonisation targets.  Speaking after the publication of his second book, titled Toward a sustainable blue economy , in which he calls for ‘a revolution in how we finance, fuel and operate the global fleet’, Matthieu de Tugny outlines what this looks like in practice.  He offers some a...

In this episode, we meet the new CEO of the Methanol Institute to hear his gameplan for the development of methanol as a marine fuel. Alexander Döll explains why he is confident that renewable methanol production will be able to meet shipping’s demand. With 240 projects for blue, bio- or e-methanol currently under development, he expects ‘real volumes’ to be available by 2027 or 2028. He discusses...

In this episode, we meet students, tutors and managers at the South Devon College Marine Academy to discuss how maritime training is evolving amid shipping’s digital and energy transitions.  The Academy, on the banks of the River Dart, in South West England, trains between 70 and 100 students and apprentices each year in its maritime programmes.  Join our Senior Editor Ariane Morrissey as she acco...

With shipping’s energy transition calling for huge investments in new ships, fuels, technologies and supply chains, Enova’s Rune Holmen discusses how governments can best support – and fund – maritime decarbonisation.  Owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and the Environment, Enova’s mandate is to allocate funds to projects that will help the country reach net-zero by 2050. It manages an ann...

In this sixth episode of the First Movers series, Odfjell’s Erik Hjortland discusses the results and lessons learned from the installation of more than 140 energy efficiency technologies across the company’s fleet of 71 chemical tankers.  The Norwegian owner and operator first embarked on an energy efficiency programme in 2007, using enhanced data collection to drive operational improvements, befo...

In this edition of the ship.energy podcast, Lesley Bankes-Hughes talks to a very well-known and proactive leader in the maritime industry, Pia Meling. Pia has had an extensive career in shipping and the imperatives of sustainability and decarbonisation have informed and underpinned her job choices, including working on good practice in ship recycling and on zero emission, autonomous shipping. In M...

As the dust begins to settle on the landmark approval of the first global greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing mechanism for international shipping, the IMO Secretary-General considers the road ahead, and urges the industry to not delay action on decarbonisation.  In this conversation, Arsenio Dominguez reflects on the eventful MEPC 83 meeting that led to IMO member states approving a ‘compromise’ text co...

In this episode, we find out more about the results of the first commercial deployment of Blue Visby, which aims to end the practice of ‘sail fast then wait’ and thereby reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Led by CBH Group, a Western Australian co-operative of grain growers, the first few months of operations saw emissions avoided of about 15%, which is consistent with results from...

In this special episode, representatives from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the bunkering industry lay out their hopes and expectations ahead of the IMO’s MEPC 83 meeting, which is set to approve potentially ‘game-changing’ measures for shipping’s energy transition.  Ambassador Albon Ishoda, Marshall Islands’ Special Envoy for Maritime Decarbonisation,  and Edmund Hughes, IBIA’s Repres...