FOLKEMØDET: The Port of Rønne already has plans to create Bunker Hub Bornholm, where the approximately 60,000 ships that pass by the island annually in the future will have the opportunity to refuel with green bunker fuel.
But is it at all realistic, Rønne asked a panel of party experts in a debate at the Folkemødet's Common Stage entitled "Decarbonization of shipping - Mission Impossible".
Whether it is at all possible to produce so much green fuel via PtX that it can meet the needs of the entire world's shipping traffic, Rønne Port's chief business officer Maja Bendtsen would like to know from the participants, where Green Power Denmark had sent department manager Kristine van het Erve Grunnet, for Ørsted came Lars Hansen as director of PtX, and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping was represented by Jan-Christoph Napierskis, who is head of regulatory affairs. DFDS' director of sustainable fleet projects Jakob Steffensen formed the last man on the panel.
The opinions from the panel were already predominantly positive but realistic from the start.
- We have 70 black ships sailing around, but we built our last black ship. That has already been decided, says DFDS' Jakob Steffensen.
However, that did not change the fact that it will be a difficult task.
- It will be a really difficult task to decarbonize shipping, but at the same time I am cautiously optimistic, promised Jan-Christoph Napierskis, before Ørsted came on the scene as a possible producer of the green fuels.
- If the goal is to be achieved, we really need to scale up. We have to do something if it is to happen, said Lars Hansen.
Before and after February 24
No one on the panel could call the green transition of shipping easy, but the war in Ukraine has changed attitudes a little.
- Until February 24, it was hard to get politicians to listen, because the climate crisis was not enough in itself. That has changed, and now the ambitions are there. It is still mission impossible, but I am positive and I think it will succeed, contributed Kristine van het Erve Grunnet.
The dance between optimism and realism left you in the tent where the stage was set.
- There is no market for green fuel now, because it costs three to four times as much as fossil. And nothing will happen before a CO2 tax is introduced. We need some kind of birth control, which we need now. The green fuels will also be more expensive, at least in the beginning, said Ørsted's Lars Hansen.
- The only problem is the price, agreed Jakob Steffensen.
But even though it's slow and sluggish, it's getting brighter.
- We live in exciting times. The USA and China are now on board. And 60 methanol ships have already been ordered worldwide, and the first ammonia-powered ship has also been ordered, said Jan-Christoph Napierskis, smiling optimistically.
He was also good for today's gimmick when a bottle appeared.
- I bought this bottle of bubbles, and tonight I'm burying it here in Allinge. It is my hope that we can dig it up in four years and celebrate how far we have come, said Jan-Christoph Napierskis, who despite his pronounced pessimism was the smileiest man of the day.
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