State-owned COSCO Shipping Holdings, which runs a vast ports empire around the globe as well as the world’s fourth largest containerline, has vowed to be carbon neutral by 2060 – a timeline in sync with Beijing’s own nationwide decarbonisation targets.
In September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced China will aim to hit peak emissions before 2030 and for carbon neutrality by 2060, something that is now guiding COSCO’s green transition.
COSCO has recently issued its latest sustainability report in which it states its aim to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, a date a decade behind many of its container peers.
Other targets laid out by COSCO include cutting the greenhouse gas emission intensity of its container shipping business by 12% by 2030 compared with 2019 levels, and to achieve a 20% cut over the same timeframe for its ports business.
Among other interesting takeaways from the report by the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed maritime conglomerate, COSCO touched upon how China will soon copy the European Union in including shipping in an emissions trading scheme.
“China has opened up the national carbon trading market and will incorporate the shipping industry into carbon trading in the future,” the report stated.
