The Green Shipping Fuel Everyone’s Betting On (But Might Regret)

Imagine a world without shipping: supermarket shelves empty out, factories grind to a halt, and the global economy goes into shock. That might sound extreme—but we’ve had a taste of it. First with covid lockdowns, then when the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal in 2021, holding up nearly 10% of global trade in a single, very embarrassing parking accident. These incidents were a reality check. They showed just how much we rely on global shipping—not just for luxuries, but for the basics of modern life. Around 80% of global trade by volume travels by sea. Maritime transport is the lifeblood of global commerce and connectivity. But all that convenience comes at a cost. In 2022, international shipping was responsible for nearly 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions—if shipping were a country it would be the 6th biggest emitter, sitting between Russia and Japan. So, if we’re serious about climate targets, we can’t ignore the ocean. In this video, we’re going to explore what it will take to bring shipping’s emissions down to zero—and the technologies that could actually get us there. 00:00 Intro 01:07 Background - The Shipping Industry 02:41 Types of Cargo and their Emissions 03:15 Fuel Used for Shipping 05:41 The Future of Shipping 08:41 Green Technologies #1 - Battery Electric 12:06 Green Technologies #2 - BioFuel 13:46 Green Technologies #3 - Hydrogen 15:15 Green Technologies #4 - Methanol 16:32 Green Technologies #5 - Green Ammonia 22:22 Outro - What’s most likely to win? If you would like to help develop the Engineering with Rosie channel, you could consider joining the Patreon community, where there is a chat community (and Patreon-only Discord server) about topics covered in the videos and suggestions for future videos and production quality improvements.   / engineeringwithrosie   Or for a one-off contribution you can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/engwithr... The Engineering with Rosie team is: Rosemary Barnes - presenter, producer, writer Javi Diez - editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierdie... Jae Chong - research and production assistant Links to resources used in the video: http://emsa.europa.eu/news-a-press-ce... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-565... https://unctad.org/publication/review... https://www.imo.org https://maritime-executive.com/articl... https://oee.rncan.gc.ca https://www.wired.com/2016/04/iphones... https://www.ics-shipping.org/shipping... https://digitallibrary.in.one.un.org https://www.follow-this.org/roughly-4... https://www.iea.org/data-and-statisti... https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/... https://stand.earth/insights/liquefie... https://www.symphonie.ai/posts/in-202... https://www.sustainablefashionweek.uk...   / the-future-is   https://glomeep.imo.org/technology/sp... https://www.shipuniverse.com/10-prove... https://maritime-executive.com/articl... https://workboat365.com/worlds-larges... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-0... https://www.scandlines.com/about-us/o... https://www.offshore-energy.biz/scand... https://maritime-executive.com/articl... https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sing... https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-ke... https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise... https://www.offshore-energy.biz/csl-b... https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells... https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelb... #shipping #greenshipping #cleantechnology #engineeringwithrosie