Decarbonizing Aviation and Maritime Industries - 2025

Aviation and maritime represent two of the most difficult to abate sectors due to their demand for cost-competitive and energy-dense fuels. Due to this requirement, it is likely that both sectors will need to engage with a combination of energy transition technologies to achieve emissions reductions. This report assesses the suitability of electrification, alternative fuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as energy transition technologies that hold decarbonization potential for both sectors.

The current focus has been on the expanded use of SAFs, however, exclusive reliance on them to achieve decarbonization is unlikely due to feedstock restraints and sustainability concerns around its production and water usage. For commercial aviation, weight concerns and energy density limitations will restrict electrification to short-range or hybrid solutions. Hydrogen will be key to providing a multi-fuel approach to decarbonizing longer-range flights; however, technology delays are hampering the use of hydrogen. Airlines are also exploring the pre-purchasing of carbon removal credits from CCS vendors who are developing direct air carbon capture technology to offset its overall emissions.

The maritime sector is well placed to capitalize on all four of the energy transition technologies identified in this report. Biofuels as well as CCUS units fitted to ship exhausts can offer immediate decarbonization, however, the limited supply of waste feedstocks and sustainability concerns around crop-based biofuel production and its impact on land use and agriculture may hinder their expanded use. New-generation ships are adopting dual-fuel engines with electric propulsion systems and are being constructed with the capacity to utilize hydrogen (or hydrogen derivatives) and wind assisted ship propulsion. However, the costly nature of these technologies will require substantial policy incentives to drive adoption.

Key Highlights

• Aviation and maritime generated 10% and 11% of all transport emissions in 2022.
• SAF production capacity is forecasted to reach 11,200mmgy by 2030, however, this is not sufficient enough in order to meet SAF blending mandates set out by the EU and governments such as the UK's. UK has set SAF blending quota at 10% for 2030, whilst the EU has set it at 70% for 2050.
• Due to the weight limitations of aircraft and limited charging infrastructure, electric aircraft are limited to short journeys. While the issue of weight is not as much of an issue in ships, they also are limited to shorter journeys due to the low energy density of batteries.
• According to GlobalData's database of active and announced projects, approximately 31.2mtpa of hydrogen production capacity will be directed towards the transportation sector by 2030. The US and Australia will be the leading producers of low-carbon hydrogen in 2030 that is to be allocated to the sector. Low-carbon hydrogen capacity for synthetic fuels will reach 4.7mtpa by 2030.
• Global CCUS capacity, based on active and upcoming projects, will exceed 740mtpa by 2030. Post-combustion capture will represent an important proportion of this, whilst direct air capture, a growing CCUS technology, is forecasted to see notable growth in the coming years, reflecting its potential to aid decarbonization efforts.

Scope

• Global CO2 emissions from the aviation and maritime industries, challenges faced decarbonizing the aviation and maritime industries, macroeconomic challenges of decarbonizing, aviation and maritime company analysis of interim and long term emission targets,net-zero goals and scope 1 and 2 emission data, analysis of different decarbonization technologies, including electrification, alternative fuels such as SAFs and biofuels, CCUS, hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia, synthetic fuels.

Reasons to Buy

• Identify the market trends within the industry and assess what the biggest players in aviation and maritime are doing to reduce emissions.
• Develop market insight of the major technologies used to decarbonize the industries, as well as the policy framework or mandates laid out by governments and governing bodies.
• Facilitate the understanding of what is happening within hard to abate industries as they look to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.