5 March 2024 (Lloyd's List) - SINGAPORE and Australia signed an agreement to establish a green and digital shipping corridor.
The collaboration aims to leverage Australia's potential as a major producer of green fuels and Singapore's status as the world's top bunkering hub and transhipment port to advance decarbonisation of the maritime industry, according to a joint statement.
Under the memorandum of understanding, both countries will work with interested partners to explore opportunities to develop zero or near-zero emission fuel supply chains, including building infrastructure, formalising standards, and developing and implementing the training requirements.
The MOU will also explore facilitating digital information exchange to enable efficient port clearance, port calls and flow of vessels between Singapore and Australia, and prompt government collaboration on both sides.
More than 40 similar green corridor initiatives have been announced since late 2021, as calls for shipping decarbonisation intensify. But examples of initiatives translated into actual vessel operations remain scarce.
There have been calls for more commitments from governments and shippers to fund the use of new technologies and costly cleaner fuels on the designated routes, or the programmes risk becoming empty promises.
A green corridor progress report released by the Global Maritime Forum in December found that only two of the 44 initiatives recorded have reached the execution stage, during which various technical, regulatory, and commercial steps are taken to enable the operation of zero-emission ships.
Others are either in the initiation or planning phase.
Singapore has been one of the main participants in this wave of green corridor surge, having established collaborations with counterparts including Japan, Rotterdam and ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.
In September 2023, it announced the Rotterdam-Singapore green corridor aimed at cutting emissions by up to 30% by 2030, but offered few practical details on the project's progress. The goal is to have the first sustainable vessels sailing on the route by 2027.
