Cape Town - A new technology that is still in its early stages promises to transport people and goods by ship while using a fraction of the resources used currently by the ships traversing the world’s oceans.
On Tuesday, the V&A Waterfront hosted an event to explore opportunities for green shipping in South Africa.
This event formed part of a series of events hosted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and its partners while the Norwegian “Statsraad Lehmkuhl” ship remained at berth at Jetty 2 at the V&A Waterfront for the week, on its “One Ocean Expedition” to raise awareness about the role of oceans for sustainable development.
Norwegian Ambassador designate to South Africa, Gjermund Saether, said: “There is a paradigm shift ongoing in the maritime sector.
“The shipping industry accounts for at least three percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Without immediate efforts, emissions from the sector could increase between 50% and 250% by 2050.”
With South Africa being “the Gateway to Africa” and a key shipping route for vessels sailing from Europe, Asia and South America (which have already have begun transitions to lower their emissions by using alternative, green fuels), Saether said there was a growing need for South Africa to consider bunkering low or zero carbon fuels, such that it could be well placed to service vessels needing to refuel along their voyage.
Failing to do this, the country may lose its preferred status to neighbouring countries or may only attract vessels equipped to make the round trip without refuelling.
South Africa Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) deputy chief operations officer, Captain Vernon Keller said they were already looking at a few projects in green shipping and one of those was to replace their emergency towing vessel, which was about 45-years-old and needed replacing soon.
They were currently considering what they could do to make the vessel more green during the building phase, but this was still in its very early stages.
Saether believed that Norway and South Africa could forge a meaningful partnership within the green shipping space.
“Norway has many solutions and innovations to offer, while South Africa has many opportunities,” Saether said.