Greek majors and Lloyd’s Register launch new initiative for greener shipping

Capital, Navios, Neda, Star Bulk and Thenamaris get behind research centre to lower existing fleet emissions.

The Lloyd's Register (LR) Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and five leading shipowners - heads of Capital Group, Navios Maritime Partners, Neda Maritime Agency, Star Bulk and Thenamaris - are launching a nonprofit global Maritime Emissions Reduction Centre (M-ERC) in Athens to optimize the efficiency of the existing fleet, Lloyd's said in a statement on Thursday.

"LR and the founding members believe that this is a significant initiative, which underlines the importance of Athens as an international maritime centre," the statement said, adding that "the M-ERC is being created with the goal of removing technical, investment and community barriers for the uptake of solutions to reduce the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions of the existing global fleet, offering a collaborative ‘safe space’ for the maritime value chain’s stakeholders, to safely navigate to net zero."

It said the center will play a role in ensuring that today's ships are suitable for the energy transition, and that the people of the industry have the necessary training and skills. These goals will be achieved through research and collaboration with shipyards and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) alongside the M-ERC’s work across society, ports and seafarer organisations to ensure the upskilling and awareness amongst seafarers and shore-based staff, it explained.

"The center will aim to attract global and regional funding to fund activities, projects and initiatives to deliver on the desired outcomes of the M-ERC. It is anticipated that more shipping stakeholders will join the initiative in the months to come," the statement underlined.