Maersk Joins BEC Low Carbon Charter to Accelerate Shipping Decarbonization

Recommendation: Integrate Maersk’s decarbonization path with the BEC Low Carbon Charter by committing to a measured target – 25-35% reduction in CO2 intensity by 2030 – while prioritizing альтернативный fuels on high-potential routes through Азия and canal corridors. Establish a quarterly progress dashboard and publish independent verifications to ensure accountability across fleets and customer commitments.

Joining the alliance, Maersk signals tangible momentum for the carrier and the broader group of операторы. The charter forms a dedicated taskforce to share best practices, align refueling plans, and speed the rollout of low-emission fuels. The инициатива enables closer collaboration with ports, customers, and regulators to reduce risk on long-haul routes and through canal passages that shape Азия-to-europe traffic.

Strategic actions include retrofitting engines for efficiency, piloting топливо such as LNG, methanol, and ammonia, and evaluating альтернативный propulsion options on Maersk’s most trafficked corridors. The операторы will share voyage data to quantify potential emissions reductions and refine practices like speed optimization, weather routing, and port call planning, delivering significant gains without sacrificing reliability.

The charter’s legal framework enforces credible reporting. The joint усилия help fuel suppliers, port authorities, and customers align on supply, onboarding, and training. The policy promotes ближе collaboration with Азия stakeholders and canal authorities to maintain schedules and reduce ballast and fuel waste. The point person daan coordinates cross-functional actions to translate milestones into ship-level actions, showing that thats a critical moment for decarbonization and resilience in shipping.

Implementation Focus: Practical Steps for a Low-Carbon Charter

Adopt a data-driven, fleet-wide plan that maps emissions across the maersks group, and signs targeted partnerships with technologies providers to drive decarbonisation. Thats the core approach that moller-maersk and the broader marine logistics network can execute now.

Step 1: Create a central bureau to standardize emissions calculations, align on baselines, and appoint a leader responsible for governance and targets. The signed charter becomes the anchor for a group-wide review process and transparent progress reporting to stakeholders.

Step 2: Upgrade equipment and technologies across the fleet. Prioritize high-emission vessels for retrofits, install shore-power capabilities where available, and pilot zero-emission propulsion on a defined subset of ships. Integrate engine data with logistics planning to trim fuel use and cut emissions per voyage.

Step 3: Build partnerships with builders, marine equipment suppliers, and kongs to secure scalable solutions that fit maersks operations. Collaborate with independent labs and suppliers to validate performance before wide deployment, ensuring the group remains capable of rapid scale.

Step 4: Use the daan analytics platform to monitor progress and translate climate commitments into concrete actions. Create dashboards that span worlds logistics networks, track fleet CO2 intensity, and surface route-level potential to cut emissions.

Step 5: Align reporting with customer and regulator expectations. Publish quarterly progress, signed milestones, and revised targets as technologies mature and results scale across the fleet.

Multifuel Pathways: Selecting fuels across fleets

Adopt a per-fleet multifuel mapping and assign a primary fuel pathway for each vessel group based on route, age, and readiness. Build this from classification data: ship size, ballast schedules, port calls, and engine types, then match to feasible zero-emission options as they become available. This approach keeps maersks current system flexible while expanding low-carbon choices across operations.

To accelerate adoption, set a rolling year-by-year plan that aligns with the vision shared by members of the BEC Low Carbon Charter. A single system can integrate marine data from voyage planning to terminal bunkering, enabling closer collaboration between carriers, ports like london and panama terminals, and suppliers. Use white papers to document best practices and track progress, ensuring that classification continues to reflect vessel capability and route risk. Each carrier gains clarity to plan its year-by-year rollouts. This also improves transparency for stakeholders and investors.

In asia, deploy pilots on routes to and from major hubs, coordinating with london-based partners to standardize refueling, data sharing, and terminal logistics. This creates a closer loop between fleet operations and the charter’s targets, helping societies around ports reach zero goals faster. The approach remains compatible with ongoing classification and supports a common data system across maersks networks.

To quantify readiness, implement a simple scoring across five dimensions: availability of alternative fuels at terminals, vessel class compatibility, infrastructure readiness, and supplier contracts. This expands visibility and helps set realistic year targets for each group. The table below outlines a plausible path by year and region, with notes on connections to maersks solutions and carrier operations.

Last-Mile Emissions Reduction: Drayage, ports, and hinterland optimization

Take a unified, data-driven approach: electrify drayage fleets, streamline port calls, and optimize hinterland routing with real‑time visibility. Recently, Maersk joined the BEC Low Carbon Charter to accelerate shipping decarbonization, signaling a strategic, united push across the supply chain. The headquarters in London anchors partnerships with port authorities, trucking associations, and regional regulators, enabling closer collaboration and setting a practical timetable that takes effect this June.

Target drayage decarbonization by electrifying urban fleets and expanding on-dock charging. Data from pilot programs indicate emissions reductions of 20–35% when electric trucks operate in port precincts with fast-charging lanes. In the United Kingdom, phased rollout along London corridors could cut total port-area transport emissions by up to 25% within two years. Use technology to coordinate ship calls with truck slots, reducing gate and yard idle times and improving throughput.

Improve port throughput by aligning vessel calls with gate operations: implement berth scheduling, remote monitoring, and shore power to decarbonize berth activity. Digital data sharing across terminals lowers dwell times and enables more precise planning, while a common data standard enhances interoperability. This approach reduces fuel burn, supports climate aims, and accelerates decarbonize progress at key hubs.

Hinterland optimization, the path to lowering total transport emissions, combines inland rail and short‑sea routes with optimized container routing. Consolidate loads, shift volume to zero‑emission modes where feasible, and use predictive routing to minimize total miles and energy use. A data platform that aggregates supply and transport data can quantify emissions reductions and help target investments along corridors in London and other major gateways.

Governance and partnerships: establish an alliance among ports, carriers, trucking firms, and logistics providers, with supply‑chain leadership to drive action. Set a shared setting for a certificate program that records milestones and reinforces accountability. The alliance aims to join additional partners, offering incentives such as preferential access and streamlined permitting. By tying certificates to measurable progress, the total footprint falls as transport and drayage steps decarbonize, supporting climate commitments and delivering tangible efficiency gains.

Container Terminal Decarbonisation: Electrification, power management, and operations

As Maersk joins BEC Low Carbon Charter to accelerate shipping decarbonisation, implement a phased electrification program at maersk’s asia-based terminals, starting with the fifth terminal, and tie it to a centralized energy management system. Take a data-driven approach to cut diesel use in yard equipment by 60% and in quay cranes by 30% within three years, with progress verified by a formal certificate of milestone completion. This aligns with maersks ambition under the charter, and ships can take the lead as the fifth terminal demonstrates the model for other terminals in asia.

Operational integration: deploy shore power at berths and yards, install battery storage to flatten peaks, and upgrade to electric-driven container handling equipment and RTGs. Route energy through a single energy management system (EMS) that optimizes loads per shift and per vessel, supported by continuous assessment. Use validation checks to confirm real-world savings and update the certificate accordingly.

Governance and collaboration: form a working group with entities across the supply chain, from ship operators to terminal operators and energy providers, spanning from port authorities to grid operators, including kingdom authorities where needed, to ensure alignment with schedules and reliability. This strategic alliance accelerates climate benefits and makes the initiative scalable across asia and beyond. The program must be capable of delivering total emissions reductions while maintaining safety and performance.

Legal and data integrity: secure permits and grid access; implement a certificate-based auditing regime for terminals and a validation protocol for energy data. Define a legal framework that supports long-term power contracts and grid stability, enabling maersk and its partners to bring down emissions while preserving reliability.

Metrics and mile markers: set a baseline and track energy intensity per TEU, total energy consumption, and the share of electrified equipment. This program covers every mile of terminal operations, with quarterly dashboards and a validation report to verify results. The asia-focused rollout at the fifth terminal can serve as a scalable model for the from-to total network, bringing climate benefits to ships and terminals across markets.

Fuel Pathway and Engine Innovation: Methanol engines and future propulsion options

Adopt methanol engines now to unlock near-term decarbonisation with scalable supply and clear certification paths.

• Fuel pathway and opportunities: Methanol provides a practical pathway for decarbonisation. The fuel can be produced from renewable energy and captured carbon, creating a climate-friendly option when green methanol is used. Technologies for methanol propulsion fall into two main categories: spark-ignition engines designed for methanol and dual-fuel engines that switch between methanol and conventional fuels. This classification supports the biggest ships and smaller feeders alike, enabling carriers to take early steps without a complete fleet repower. The supply chain recently expanded with more bunkering options and regional methanol hubs, improving fuel availability and reducing supply volatility, creating opportunities for regional players.

• Engine innovation trajectory: The engine options include high-efficiency spark-ignition methanol engines and dual-fuel configurations that allow a diesel or heavy fuel pilot while running on methanol. This mix yields significant emissions reductions when powered by green methanol, while preserving reliability and engine durability. Efficiency gains come from optimized air-fuel control and cylinder pressure management, with public-private collaboration driving standardised testing and certificate processes. Maersk, headquartered in Copenhagen, has led efforts to align equipment with classification society requirements and to publish a performance certificate for new builds and retrofits. For a carrier evaluating options, fuel flexibility is key.

• Targets, barriers and supply chain: Current targets set by the IMO and national regulators require emissions reductions in the 2030s and beyond. The biggest barriers include higher upfront capex, limited availability of green methanol at scale, and the need for robust safety credentials and environmental certificate processes. To mitigate risk, shipowners should secure offtake agreements and join a multi-stakeholder group to coordinate supply and bunkering. Classification societies are updating rules to certify methanol-ready engines and fuel systems, helping to reduce delays and build confidence in the fleet.

• june progress and leadership: In june, Maersk joined a public-private group focused on methanol technology deployment, signaling leadership and commitment to a coordinated rollout. This collaboration aligns supplier capacity, port infrastructure, and vessel design standards, increasing predictability for carriers and equipment manufacturers.

• Future propulsion options and takeaways: While methanol serves as a climate-friendly bridge fuel, the industry must prepare for broader options, including ammonia and hydrogen blends for long-term decarbonisation. A phased plan should: (a) expand methanol-powered vessels and retrofit programs, (b) develop scalable green methanol supply with power-to-methanol pathways, and (c) maintain engine designs that can switch fuels if needed. The equipment footprint should be optimized for efficient operation, with lightweight fuel tanks, robust safety systems, and a streamlined certificate process to reduce certification time. Over the coming year, fleet-wide targets should reflect a staged transition, demonstrating cost-effective fuel conversion for the biggest carriers and their fleets.

Regulatory Landscape and Partnerships: Global rules, alliances, and compliance

Establish a centralized regulatory compliance hub to coordinate global rules and partnerships.

Global rules shape shipping operations, investment plans, and decarbonisation trajectories. IMO-supported frameworks, including CII, EEXI, and MRV, set a common baseline that carriers, shippers, and terminals must meet. Translate policy into action by mapping these requirements to concrete projects, ensuring data is captured in a unified system and reported with transparency; the resulting clarity supports risk management and financing decisions.

• Global frameworks and standards: align internal data and reporting with IMO-supported schemes, and prepare for future amendments that affect fleets and port calls.
• Regional and national measures: harmonize requirements across Europe, Asia, and the Americas to reduce duplication and speed compliance across carriers and supply chains.
• Port and terminals policy: integrate bunkering, loading windows, and digital interfaces at terminals to minimize disruption and enable real-time reporting.
• Incentives and finance: leverage green finance and carbon pricing where available; translate policy signals into budget allocations for retrofit, fuel-switching, and technology deployment.

Partnerships and alliances drive speed and scale. Create a strategic alliance among carriers, shippers, terminals, and technology providers, anchored by a taskforce that oversees joint projects and data standards. Publish white papers that codify governance, risk management, and decarbonisation metrics to accelerate adoption by the broader industry. This approach supports science-based targets and aligns with a global vision to decarbonise shipping.

• Joint projects and pilots: run at high-impact terminals and along key supply routes to test new fuels, energy-efficient equipment, and digital twins for route optimization.
• Data governance and technology transfer: establish secure data-sharing protocols, common data models, and interoperable interfaces to support scorecards and dashboards.
• Asia-first initiatives: leverage regional hubs to demonstrate scalable pathways that feed into a broader, imo-supported framework and contribute to significant emissions reductions.
• Kongs and other technology partners: engage builders and technology suppliers to accelerate container handling efficiency and automated operations at terminals.

Implementation roadmap for this year and beyond includes a clear June milestone. By aligning regulatory discipline with strategic collaborations, the industry can deliver efficient, scalable decarbonisation pathways, supported by science and a shared supply-side vision. This approach spans the worlds of shipping and logistics. The resulting governance structure will benefit carrier services, terminal operations, and the overall global logistics chain while maintaining a competitive, compliant posture.