Denmark announces alliance on green fuels in India

A.P. Moller – Maersk, one of the founding members of the Green Fuels Alliance India, will take a seat on the steering committee as one of the representatives of the maritime industry for the conversations around green fuels.

Chennai: Denmark has announced its Green Fuels Alliance India (GFAI) initiative in a bid to boost collaborative efforts between the two countries in the sustainable energy solutions sector and advance their joint global goal towards carbon neutrality.

Led by the Danish Embassy and the Consulate General of Denmark in India, the new alliance is a strategic initiative poised to play a pivotal role in advancing the Green Fuels sector, including Green Hydrogen, by fostering innovation, collaboration, and partnerships between Danish industries and their counterparts in India.

GFAI's primary objective is to promote sustainable energy growth in India by establishing an ecosystem that encourages collaboration among businesses, government entities, research institutions, and financial stakeholders from both the Indian and Danish sectors.

Nine pioneering Danish organisations have already committed to the GFAI initiative as founding members including Maersk, Topsoe, Umwelt Energy, Mash Makes, European Sustainable Solutions, Novozymes, Danfoss, Brdr. Christensen and Hydrogen Denmark. Meanwhile, the GFAI advisory board members include India Hydrogen Alliance, Energy Consortium at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Danish Energy Agency and State of Green.

The GFAI announcement comes at an opportune moment in history as India massively pushes towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2070. Meanwhile, Denmark has topped the global Climate Performance Ranking 2024 and is also on the path to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

The GFAI is demonstrative of activities under the Green Strategic Partnership (GSP) signed in 2020 between India and Denmark that seek to meet the partner countries’ ambitious climate targets.

Ambassador of Denmark to India, H.E. Freddy Svane, is hopeful that such an international collaboration has the potential to greatly aid the global green transition. “Our planet needs action. The Tamil Nadu investors summit is happening at this very important junction. Danish companies bring skills to the green transition globally. Happy to see the special efforts through the Green Strategic Partnership to inspire India in her endeavours of greening its development. The Green Fuels Alliance India is powering initiatives within the energy transition. May our joint contributions be significant and inspirational,” he said.

Key features of the GFAI include:

• featuring a Steering Committee comprised of Danish businesses and coordinated by the Secretariat at the Danish Consulate in Bangalore.
• Advisory Board comprising industry experts and thought leaders that will ensure the initiatives remain innovative and aligned with industry trends.
• Inspired by Collaborative Initiatives such as the India-Denmark Energy Partnership, the Nation Green Hydrogen Mission, and joint R&D efforts on Green Fuels, including Green Hydrogen

Maersk’s 2040 Net-Zero Ambitions

Maersk has set a Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions target for 2040 across the entire business and has also set tangible and ambitious near-term targets for 2030 to ensure significant progress.

Every year, 100,000 vessels powered by 300 million tonnes of fossil fuel move 11 billion tonnes of goods around the world. This makes shipping accountable for around 1,076 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually – around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Maersk is committed to playing its part in getting shipping to NetZero by switching to green fuel powering its vessels and remains committed to only ordering new build vessels that can sail on green fuels.

Maersk introduced the world’s first dual-fuel vessel that can run on green methanol in 2023, and the world’s largest vessel to run on green fuel, a 16,000-TEU (Twenty Feet Equivalent containers) vessel, will be added to service in February 2024. Maersk has secured sufficient green1 methanol to cover this vessel’s maiden voyage and continues to work diligently on 2024-25 sourcing solutions for its methanol-enabled vessel fleet. In addition to these two vessels, there are 23 more that have been ordered and will be added to the fleet as and when they are built.

Mr Tejs Laustsen Jensen, CEO of Hydrogen Denmark, a cluster organisation for green fuels in Denmark on the advisory board of GFAI said, “Hydrogen Denmark is thrilled to be in the steering committee and part of the Green Fuels Alliance India. The alliance represents a powerful collaboration between nations, bridging expertise and resources to accelerate the adoption of the green energy solutions that is going to power the societies of tomorrow. It is an essential topic, and not least one, where India and Denmark have a lot to gain from each other and as two global frontrunners not least has a lot to contribute to the global decarbonisation efforts.”

Jillian Evanko, President and CEO, Chart Industries (NYSE: GTLS) and Founding Member, India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A), said, “We look forward to working with the Danish Government and Industry to support offtake and trade in Hydrogen, Hydrogen Derivates and e-fuels. Maritime transport decarbonisation is a key use-case for green hydrogen and we look forward to supporting this initiative that hopes to accelerate large offtake volumes of hydrogen derivatives and e-fuels from and in India. Long term offtake agreements are important to create the hydrogen economy in India.”

As green fuels gain prominence in India, GFAI will actively facilitate knowledge sharing, business opportunities, and strategic and financing partnerships between Indian and Danish actors in the field of green fuels, including Green Hydrogen.

Interested parties can contact Joseph Kurian, Innovation Advisor, Cleantech, Innovation Centre Denmark, Consulate General of Denmark in Bangalore at joskur@um.dk.

Maersk 소개

A.P. Moller - Maersk는 고객의 공급망을 연결하고 단순화하는 통합 물류 기업입니다. 물류 서비스 산업의 글로벌 리더로서 Maersk는 130개 국가에서 사업을 영위하고 약 100,000명의 직원을 보유하고 있습니다. Maersk는 새로운 기술, 새로운 선박 및 친환경 연료를 통해 2040년까지 사업 전반에서 순 배출량 제로 달성을 목표로 합니다.

¹ Maersk defines “green fuels” as fuels with low to very low GHG emissions over their life cycle compared to fossil fuels. Different green fuels achieve different life cycle reductions depending on their production pathway. By 'low' we refer to fuels with 65-80% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels. This covers, e.g., some biodiesels. ”Very low” refers to fuels with 80-95% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels.