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SATELLITES
Data-driven technologies such as satellites can fast-track shipping’s decarbonisation. Carole Plessy at OneWeb considers the proposition
REACHING FOR THE STARS
Carole Plessy Head of Maritime, OneWeb
Decarbonisation is one of the biggest challenges in shipping’s shift towards greater sustainability and improved Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. With the International Maritime Organization mandating a reduction in shipping’s CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030, incoming EEXI and CII requirements, as well as commercially driven initiatives by financiers and cargo owners such as the Poseidon Principles and Sea Cargo Charter, the pressure on shipowners and operators to reduce their environmental footprint is mounting. Fortunately, transformative technologies have also emerged to help meet these environmental targets. With new digital datadriven technologies and software, a wealth of options are available to help vessels reduce fuel usage and emissions, optimise routes and monitor their performance. The commonality of all these interventions is the need for data, and lots of it; quickly transposed from ship to shore. As shipping digitises and decarbonises simultaneously, the ability to measure,
report and verify vast amounts of data from a series of sensors and data points monitoring a modern vessel has become business critical. This is not only helping them become more competitive, as well as efficient in managing the energy transition, but for some it will define whether owners and operators can straddle this transition period and emerge from the other side. Ironically, the industry that has for so long been hidden will require openness and transparency in order to succeed However, a bottleneck to the widespread adoption of these technologies persists, delaying shipping’s transformation into an industry as digitally connected as our onshore peers: global access to fast, reliable and low-latency data. Currently, connectivity beyond the range of shorebased 4G or without direct connection to fibre-optic cables is usually provided by Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite networks. While these undoubtedly wrought a 20th-century transformation on shipping and have a role in supporting connectivity
C L E A N S H I P P I N G INTERNATIONAL – Autumn 2021
