Maritime UK has called for a combination of private and public sector investment to deliver its 2050 decarbonisation target.

It said that this level of funding would help the industry develop green fuels, port infrastructure and new types of technology to reduce carbon emissions from the sector.

The shipping industry, which moves approximately 90 per cent of world trade, contributes an estimated 3 per cent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions – more than aviation – and will need $2tn to $3tn in total to reach net zero.

Shipping is considered a ‘hard-to-abate’ sector because it’s prohibitively expensive to meaningfully reduce emissions and the technologies are not yet widely available.

Furthermore, due to the continued expansion of international trade, the volume of goods shipped across the sea is projected to triple by 2050. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the climate footprint of the shipping industry could increase by as much as 250 per...