Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support the development of the maritime energy efficiency sector.

The Government is committed to decarbonising the maritime sector both domestically, to meet our Net Zero target, and internationally to meet International Maritime Organisation targets.

In 2019, Government published the Clean Maritime Plan, which noted that by 2025 we expect that ‘all vessels operating in UK waters [should be] maximising the use of energy efficiency options’, to reduce emissions in the short-term before practical zero emission technologies are made deployable. Following publication of the Clean Maritime Plan, Government provided £1.5m for clean maritime projects including maritime energy efficiency projects, through the MarRI-UK Clean Maritime Call. The Department will soon publish the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which will set out further details of the Government’s maritime decarbonisation measures.

Internationally, the UK was crucial to securing both the efficiency target in the IMO’s Initial Greenhouse Gas Strategy, and to the IMO’s adoption of the Energy Efficiency Design Index. The UK will continue to push for ambition on efficiency and decarbonisation measures at the IMO.