coZEV 2040 Ambition Statement

In October 2021, an initial group of nine climate-leading companies released the coZEV 2040 Ambition Statement in which they announced their ambition to only use zero-carbon ocean shipping services by 2040 and called on policymakers for support to catalyze a scalable and economically viable industry transformation. In September 2022, coZEV announced ten additional signatories to the 2040 Ambition Statement, more than doubling the number of companies in less than a year and further sending a clear signal of urgency and growing momentum for change among maritime freight buyers.

The coZEV 2040 Ambition Statement positions signatory companies as clear leaders in this space by:

• Stating a shared aim by a group of prominent multinational companies to decarbonize their maritime freight by 2040. Experts estimate this target date to be well aligned with a Paris Agreement 1.5°C trajectory and achievable
• Expressing a desire to see the entire maritime shipping industry decarbonized by 2050 at the latest
• Acknowledging that decarbonization of this sector requires a wholesale transition to shipping fuels that are zero-carbon from a lifecycle perspective, massively scalable, and economically viable

Green Shipping Deal Tracker Pilot

Maritime shipping emissions fall under Scope 3 for cargo owner companies. While many companies are making good progress on their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions are considerably more difficult to tackle and require additional cargo owner education and effort, as some solutions are not yet fully developed or at scale, and solutions for decarbonizing supply chains are naturally more collaborative efforts that take more time to accomplish.

Within maritime shipping, the only option available in the market at this time for cargo owners to lower their emissions is through the purchasing of drop-in biofuel service. Currently, many climate-leading cargo owners are already making voluntary investments in lower emission shipping through these services, and are poised in the coming years to transition that investment to scalable ZE shipping. However, unlike in other sectors such as renewable energy, there is a lack of public recognition and acknowledgment of these voluntary investments by companies to lower their emissions in this sector right now.

Therefore through coZEV, we’re developing a “green shipping deal tracker” pilot to recognize cargo owner companies for investment in and associated emissions avoided as they support shipping services that offer significantly lower emissions than traditional bunker fuels, and eventually ZE shipping service offerings when those become available in the marketplace. Not only will this give climate-leading companies that make concrete investments in maritime emissions reduction the public acknowledgement they deserve for their leadership in catalyzing a ZE transition in shipping, it also encourages interest in making such investments among new companies.

If the pilot is successful, the “deal tracker” would become a longer term coZEV workstream, until ZE shipping becomes the new normal and tracking of such activity is no longer needed.