April 16, 2026. The maritime shipping industry runs on fossil fuels and is a major emitter of climate-warming greenhouse gases (GHG). Cutting those emissions is growing more urgent and more feasible day by day, according to a new report released by the NGO Energy Vision, The Future of Shipping: Cleaner Fuel Options for the Maritime Sector. It offers one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of the costs, feasibility, and emissions profiles of alternative shipping fuels.
While low-carbon alternative fuels cost more than conventional carbon-intensive fuels, oil price volatility and mounting regulatory pressure on the maritime sector are narrowing that gap. Regulatory regimes are increasingly requiring shipping companies to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional fuel prices rose more than 10% over the past month, driven by market disruptions from the Iran conflict.
Energy Vision’s report found the extra cost of using low-carbon fuel could be remarkably low when calculated on a per-product basis — pennies or even less per shipped product.
Maritime shipping is the backbone of global commerce, moving approximately 90% of all internationally traded goods across major trade routes connecting the US, China, the EU, and beyond. Yet nearly all of the world’s 106,000-plus commercial vessels run on fossil fuels — primarily heavy fuel oil, marine diesel oil, and marine gas oil — consuming over 87 billion gallons of marine fuel annually. The sector is responsible for almost 3% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A single container ship can emit as much GHG in a day as 217 cars produce in an entire year.
The damage isn’t only to the climate. Shipping poses serious public health risks, particularly in and around port cities, where elevated concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter are linked to higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. In some urban ports, shipping accounts for as much as 40% of local sulfur dioxide concentrations, with the health burden falling disproportionately on nearby communities.
The maritime industry is under mounting pressure especially to decarbonize, from regulators, customers, and increasingly volatile fossil fuel markets. The European Union already imposes escalating financial penalties on high-carbon shipping through its Emissions Trading System, and a global carbon pricing framework proposed through the International Maritime Organization is on the table for a vote in late 2026, though the US and Saudi Arabia are resisting this.
Meanwhile, the global merchant fleet is projected to grow 40–115% by 2050, partly to support the clean energy transition itself: wind turbines, batteries, and rare earth minerals are bulky, and they travel by sea. That makes decarbonizing the sector doubly important.