Tomorrow’s burning issue?

A personal look at what future holds for marine fuel

Is the shipping industry on the verge of a significant game-changer as it strives to meet tough IMO targets for reduced carbon emissions? In a speculative and not altogether serious vein, Gary Gimson looks ahead to some possible future scenarios – including battery power and sail assistance.

I’ve been in shipping a long time – since 1969, in fact. I’ve seen a few changes. Some of these have been revolutionary and others merely evolutionary, creeping up on us much more stealthily, but proving equally as challenging to the existing order.

So, having witnessed these changes over the past half century, I thought I might throw my mind forward to see what the long-term future could hold – and especially in one key area.

Making forecasts is far from easy. As anyone who watched science fiction films in the 1960s will know, the future never turns out quite as expected. What we now know and didn’t then is that progress actually resulted in cellphones, the internet and suchlike rather than humankind bothering to colonize the Moon or do battle with Martians as I had half expected, when growing up, would have happened by 2020.

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