Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the report of the Committee on Climate Change, Reducing UK emissions: Progress report to Parliament. published in June 2020, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on (a) port workers, (b) port infrastructure and (c) seafarers of the recommendation that the shipping industry switch to using vessels powered by (i) hydrogen and (ii) ammonia in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from merchant shipping activity.

The Department has been engaging actively with maritime stakeholders to better understand the opportunities for employment arising from the transition to net zero and will comment on the related consideration of employment issues in the forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan.

More broadly, following the publication of the Clean Maritime Plan and its associated research in 2019, the Department has commissioned additional research into the economic opportunities presented by maritime clusters and the role such clusters will play in delivering net zero, and expects this work to be finalised later this year.