Maersk testifies at a congressional hearing
Maersk’s North America’s Head of Environment & Sustainability, Lee Kindberg, testified before Congress last week.
By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent
WASHINGTON — Dr. Lee Kindberg, Maersk Line’s North American head of environment and sustainability, told members of Congress on April 15th during a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. The subcommittee invited Kindberg to testify as an expert.
“This is really an exciting time to be in shipping – a time of change that will transform the industry as much as containerization did in the 20th century,” she said in her comments.
“A major challenge in the transformation to low or zero-emissions shipping is not at sea, but on land,” Kindberg wrote in her prepared written comments. “The technological changes on the vessels are minor compared with the massive innovative solutions and fuel transformation that must take place to produce and distribute entirely new energy sources.”
“What we need now is to enable the technology leap to get to zero and here research and development will be fundamental.”
Ocean shipping is also the most energy-efficient way to move cargo, Maersk told the subcommittee. They also advocated the reduction of fuel consumption that reduces overall GHG and pollutants emissions.
That said, Kindberg told Congress that the shipping industry emits 2 to 3 percent of the entire world’s industrial CO2 and that the International Maritime Organization has been proactive in setting energy efficiency and climate justice goals for the entire industry.
