Shipping: Carbon Emissions

(asked on 19th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he made of the implications for his policies of Maritime UK’s proposal for investment in maritime decarbonisation as part of the upcoming Spending Review.


Answered by
Robert Courts Portrait
Robert Courts
Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This question was answered on 22nd October 2021

To date the Department for Transport has funded a £1.5m competition for innovation in clean maritime and provided £93,897 in grant support through the 2019 Department’s Transport Technology Research Innovation Grant (TRIG) Programme to early stage research projects related to clean maritime. In 2020 the TRIG programme provided almost £90,000 to clean maritime projects. Under this programme the Department will allocate up to £400,000 this year to 13 projects in zero emission shipping.

In March this year Government launched a Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) to decarbonise the maritime sector. The CMDC will allocate up to £23m in R&D funding to 55 projects comprising of feasibility studies and trials in zero emission shipping technologies, accelerating the development of zero emission technology and infrastructure in the UK.

The Government has carefully considered all industry submissions, including the proposals published by Maritime UK. The Spending review launched on 7 September by the Chancellor of the Exchequer will conclude alongside an Autumn Budget on 27 October. It would be premature for me to comment on any plans for further investment in maritime decarbonisation before a settlement has been agreed.

The Department has made no assessment of the level of economic development that Government funding for maritime decarbonisation may provide to the UK’s coastal communities. However, in 2019, alongside the Clean Maritime Plan, the Department published an assessment which identified that low and zero emissions shipping could result in potential economic benefits to the UK of around £360-£510 million per year by the middle of the century.

Maritime UK has published its views that investment in maritime decarbonisation could in future create jobs in all four nations of the United Kingdom, particularly in coastal communities with a tradition of maritime economic activity, including shipbuilding.

Industry research estimates that in 2017 the UK maritime sector as a whole directly supported more than 220,000 jobs for UK employees.

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