Shipping must move beyond individual fuel procurement strategies and aggregate its demand for alternative fuels if it is to unlock the investment needed to scale zero-emission shipping, according to compliance solutions provider EmissionLink.

Managing director Philippos Ioulianou made the comments during a panel session on demand aggregation at the SMM trade fair in Hamburg this week. He argued that shipowners are reluctant to commit to alternative fuels without sufficient supply at commercially viable prices, while producers need certainty over long-term demand before investing. The standoff matters because shipping, which carries the bulk of world trade, still relies overwhelmingly on conventional fossil fuels, and the low- and zero-carbon alternatives under consideration — such as biofuels, methanol and ammonia — currently carry a significant cost premium over conventional bunker fuel.

"I think the chicken-and-egg question is something we have been talking about for many years," he said. "Today, we are moving in the right direction. We have seen in other industries how regulation and incentives can help bring costs down and accelerate adoption, such as the solar power industry, and shipping is now going through that same transition."

FuelEU Maritime and the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), he said, have already shown that regulation can stimulate demand for lower-carbon fuels and encourage collaboration across the industry. Shipping was brought into the EU ETS from 2024, with the phase-in of shipping emissions allowances, while FuelEU Maritime — the EU's fuel greenhouse gas intensity regulation — took effect in 2025 and includes a pooling mechanism allowing ships to combine their compliance balances.

"Shipping's growing experience with compliance through the likes of FuelEU and the EU ETS can play an important role in aggregating demand for new fuels," Ioulianou said. "By bringing shipowners and charterers together around shared compliance needs, we should be able to create the scale and certainty required to accelerate alternative fuel uptake and move towards a market where low-carbon fuels are available, accessible and affordable."

Ioulianou also called for the billions of euros in maritime revenues that the EU ETS is expected to deliver to member states to be reinvested directly in maritime decarbonisation projects, particularly alternative fuel infrastructure in major bunkering regions.

Green shipping corridors could also help build the supply chain, he argued. Such corridors — routes on which vessels can use low- or zero-emission fuels with supporting bunkering infrastructure — have been promoted internationally, including through the Clydebank Declaration launched at COP26 in 2021.

"Green corridors should reward vessels that actively reduce emissions, whether that is through cleaner fuels or energy-efficiency technologies," he said. "We need to create an environment where investment in lower-carbon operations makes commercial sense."

Noting that previous energy transitions took years to reach meaningful scale, Ioulianou argued this is a reason for shipping to use regulation, collaboration, and aggregated demand to give fuel producers and investors clearer signals about future demand — rather than a reason to delay.

The Columbia Group-backed company has previously said it handled FuelEU pooling submissions covering more than 600 ships in the regulation's first compliance cycle.