As shipping faces growing pressure to decarbonise, a lack of long-term fuel demand remains one of the biggest barriers to scaling production of zero-emission fuels such as e-methanol and e-ammonia.

While the number of alternative-fuel-capable vessels continues to grow, many fuel production projects remain unable to reach a final investment decision due to a lack of long-term, bankable offtake agreements.

A new insight brief explores how innovative pooling of compliance credits could help address this challenge by aggregating demand, reducing risk, and creating the revenue certainty needed to unlock investment in new fuel production projects.

The brief finds that while existing pooling arrangements support the uptake of biofuels and bio-LNG, using pools to enable scalable zero-emission fuels will require longer-term commitments and greater price certainty to help bridge the gap between fuel producers’ and shipowners’ requirements. It also highlights green shipping corridors as promising environments for testing innovative pooling models and accelerating the uptake of zero-emission fuels.