Efficient new ships won’t be enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals
Shipping has a low profile in discussions of energy and climate change. In this blog John Broderick...
01 Jul 2020
Aviation and shipping both require large transportable stores of low carbon energy. At present, electrification can’t deliver what is required. Alternative fuels including biofuels could offer a solution, but their use has potential interactions with other sectors (e.g. food production) and other energy services (e.g. heat).
This project examines competition for alternative fuels, with an emphasis on the social, political and economic interests involved and the international nature of the aviation and shipping industries.
By examining how technical and infrastructure requirements, legal & governance regimes and economic processes influence supply chains, it will identify opportunities and constraints for decarbonization in challenging sectors of the economy.
Prospective alternative fuel pathways will be modelled using UKERC’s ‘TEAM’ model, and a roadmap of feedstock availability for aviation and shipping will be produced. The project will build on the Shipping in Changing Climates consortium and longitudinal data on demand for long distance travel from CREDS.