SUMMARY

Singapore-based GCMD was set up as a non-profit organisation last year to help the maritime industry meet or exceed the IMO's GHG emission reduction goals.

By Shardul Sharma

BP has joined the Singapore-based Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) as a strategic partner, it said on April 5.

GCMD was set up as a non-profit organisation in August last year to help the maritime industry meet or exceed the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s GHG emission reduction goals for 2030 and 2050.

It aims to achieve this by creating opportunities for cross-industry collaboration and sharing its projects’ outcomes, aimed at helping fuel the energy transition within the maritime industry, BP said. This partnership adds S$10mn ($7.4mn) in funding.

At any one time, about 300 ships are on the water for BP, enabling it to move around 240mn metric tons/year of product. BP said it will look to leverage GCMD’s findings in its own maritime activities and share developing best practices with its customers through its gas and low carbon energy business that integrates the company’s existing natural gas capabilities with its low and zero carbon businesses and markets, including wind, solar and hydrogen.

As part of the partnership, Lambros Klaoudatos, BP’s senior vice president of shipping, will sit on GCMD’s board.