Mitsui OSK Lines has launched a programme to work towards net-zero carbon emissions with its customers.
The Takeshi Hashimoto-led shipping giant said the Blue Action Net-Zero Alliance will be a group-wide carbon inset programme.
Insets are a way to buy emissions reductions from within the shipping industry for voyages where alternative fuels may not be available. They are like carbon offsets, but avoid the controversial use of emissions reductions from outside shipping — such as planting trees.
Insets are seen as a way to allow investments in green shipping in one part of the world, even if the customers willing to pay for it are elsewhere.
MOL’s programme will allow shippers and logistics companies known as non-vessel operating common carriers to reduce their indirect supply chain emissions, known as Scope 3, by purchasing shipping powered by alternative fuels.
The move comes after MOL’s pilot programme with Dutch start-up 123Carbon made it the Asia-Pacific region’s first shipping company to issue greenhouse gas insets, known as environmental attributes certificates (EACs).
“Since then, MOL has established a system that can ensure operations from implementing low-emission voyages using alternative fuels in the MOL Group-operated fleet, to issuing EACs and allocating them to customers,” MOL said in an announcement.
The Tokyo-listed company, which has the world’s fourth-largest owned fleet by vessel count, said it has already executed EAC transactions with three major logistics companies: subsidiary MOL Logistics, Japan’s Nippon Express Holdings and US-based CH Robinson.
MOL said customers who take part in the Blue Action programme will purchase EACs, representing greenhouse gas emissions reductions from specific low-emission voyages by vessels in its fleet.
The Japanese shipping giant will provide the EACs through the 123Carbon inset platform.
The shippers can then use the emissions reductions represented in the EACs to cut their Scope 3 emissions in their sustainability reports.
The programme will follow a book-and-claim model, a system that allows shippers to claim the emissions reductions from voyages their cargoes did not directly travel on.
“The MOL Group will use the proceeds from the sale of EACs to procure alternative fuels and replace the fossil fuel used for voyages with alternative fuels,” MOL said.
The company’s fleet includes four methanol-fuelled vessels, with one more on order. It also operates 49 LNG-fuelled vessels, two capable of using LPG and has previously used biodiesel in its ships.
Of its 69 ships on order, six will be built to run on ethane, one will be a battery-hybrid vessel, one will be powered by methanol, seven by LPG, and 45 will be LNG-fuelled.(Copyright)
