New Delhi, Feb 23 (Agency) Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday said that it is critical to develop a roadmap for greening the shipping sector in India, reduce pollution intensity and evolve strategies to introduce renewable energy and green hydrogen in the shipping sector. The Minister said that with ‘green growth’ being a priority area of the government, the focus is firmly on meeting the decarbonization targets for 2030 as well as the net-zero goals for 2070. He said this is applicable to the shipping sector as well. The Budget had also put forth the need to promote coastal shipping as an energy efficient and lower cost mode of transport, both for passengers and freight, through PPP (public private partnership) mode with viability gap funding, he added. Addressing the session on Instruments and Leadership for Inclusive Green Growth at World Sustainable Development Summit 2023 in New Delhi today, Sonowal said that with India taking over the G20 Presidency this year and working groups deliberating on clean energy and green transitions, India is re-emphasizing the significance of inclusive green growth as its development strategy.
The Minister said that shipping sector is both energy and resource intensive and needs an implementation roadmap to achieve energy and resource neutrality. He said that presently about 99% of the energy demand from the coastal shipping sector is met by fossil fuels, with fuel oil and marine gas oil (MGO). As per IMO, an unchecked measure may take GHG emissions associated with the shipping sector to anywhere between 50% and 250% by 2050 in comparison to 2008 emission levels. Sonowal said the IMO overall vision, adopted in 2018 is to phase out greenhouse gas emissions from the industry as soon as possible in this century. He said in line with the IMO’s objective the MoPSW has set a target to reduce GHG emission in the Indian shipping sector to 30% by 2030.