Beyond the debates: LISW Consensus on decarbonisation

This article is republished with permission from Strider Carbon, a strategic consultancy working at the intersection of maritime, climate, and finance. Prasanna Colluru, the founder of Strider Carbon, synthesises key areas of industry consensus from three major report launches at London International Shipping Week 2025.

Read more from Strider Carbon on their Sandbox blog here.

• Efficiency remains the primary focus

• Location-based fuel availability will drive (green) corridor development

• The business case to decarbonise larger vessels is more easily justifiable

• Fuel flexibility/agnosticism is essential (for a shipowner) – even within a fleet

• Ports are critical enablers, not just nexus points

• Competition with other industries for green fuel supply is real

• Piggybacking on other sectors’ infrastructure makes sense

• Long term offtake agreements are needed to ensure green fuel supply for the sector

• Someone has to absorb shipping’s green premium

• Charter rates aren’t keeping pace with new vessel costs, making green investments harder

• Business case proof matters more than technical proof at this point  

• Yard capacity constraints will keep newbuild prices high and limit retrofits

• Qualified crew availability declining, better conditions and training are required

• Engineering resources are stretched across yards and technology development

• Monitoring and data sharing is essential for progress

• Regulatory certainty is essential for decarbonisation investments   

• The IMO NZF is challenging; intra and inter-sectoral collaboration is crucial

• Without the NZF we’ll have a complex patchwork of emissions regulations with significant (still unknown) implications

• Use of NZF funds in a robust manner is key to the transition

• Gearing reward mechanisms towards green shipping demand creation will accelerate the transition

• The time to act is NOW – taking even small steps today can be a win

Shipping’s decarbonisation journey is often characterised by debates over competing fuel pathways and technologies. While we are engaged in these very important discussions, we may sometimes lose oversight of the fundamental challenges that require collaborative solutions regardless of which approach ultimately prevails. Following three major report launches at LISW, it became clear to us, once again, that beneath the differences which tend to take centre stage, lies substantial industry consensus on key issues.

This consensus matters because it shows where collective action can start immediately and existing efforts can be accelerated. As fuel and technology pathways mature, progress on shared infrastructure, financial enablers, and capacity building can continue. This groundwork enables the large-scale sector-wide collaboration that the transition demands. Moving forward requires innovation on unresolved questions as well as collaborative problem-solving on shared fundamentals.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post represent Strider Carbon’s interpretation of publicly available information shared at London International Shipping Week 2025. While we’ve aimed to accurately capture key themes, we encourage readers to consult the original reports referenced above and session recordings for the full context.