“We are going to deliver and we are going to have tanks with green fuels,” Enger said during a conference arranged by the environemntal non-profit organisation Zero in Oslo.
“But we are not going to use the green fuel and ammonia if the regulations don’t come,” Enger continued and underlined that without global regulations requiring the use of green fuel, it will be too costly for companies to choose this option on their own.
Norway led the negotiations on the IMO Net-Zero Framework (NZF) deal, which collapsed on October 17 after member states agreed to postpone the vote for a year due to coercive measures and pressure from the United State.
Enger has headed Höegh Autoliners for the past five years, going through challenges such as covid, the closure of the Suez Canal and the collapse of one of the most important bridges in the US, and most recently Trump’s tariffs.
“I haven’t experienced a single year in this job that has been close to what we thought it would be. I think it’s very important not to panic, but to stick to the long-term plans. This year may have been a bit more turbulent geopolitically than usual, but it’s not a cliffhanger,” he said.
Höegh Autoliners is among the few companies investing in large newbuilds capable of running on ammonia.
The CEO remains confident that the agreement will happen, fresh off his sixth trip to China this year, where he said momentum is growing.
“China has now started to scale solar and wind off-grid and storage (for alternative fuel production, -ed.), exactly what we are looking for. So we experience that decarbonisation is moving at full speed,” he said.
He believes that with or without US consent, China – which is backing the deal – is building dominance in the world by leading climate regulation and renewable energy production.
Thus the threat surrounding the decarbonisation of the shipping sector is the the risk of creating complex of regional rules.
“The biggest concern with not getting things in place for us is not that there won’t be the deal, but that we get a patchwork of arrangements that go into local state budgets, and that we will never be able to get rid of it again,” said Enger during the conference.
And that will likely depend on whether the IMO acts fast or not.
A political agreement on the deal is achievable, says IMO Net-Zero Framework negotiator Sveinung Oftedal, who during the conference said that countries now need to determine where they stand – and identify what they can adjust to participate going forward.
“There is ongoing dialogue all the time. It is not just in negotiations when there are meetings. There is a dialogue between countries almost weekly,” he told the crowd.
Moreover, countries will need to think about what might help Washington change its position.
Oftedal remembers that the first climate strategy and the first energy efficiency requirements for shipping happened under Trump’s first term.
“[The US] must find out what they can participate in going forward,” he said.
Norway will continue to back the IMO agreement and lead the pack of countries which were planning to settle the deal this year.
“Our closest partner until we get a global deal is the EU, and we should aim to working more closely with the EU to become part of the regional sphere and continue to work for the global decarbonisation deal,” said Andreas Enger of Höegh Autoliners.
