Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), Japan’s largest shipowner, could well be the first Asian company to operate net zero emissions ocean-going vessels.

MOL has today unveiled an updated environmental roadmap aiming for net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.

In the update, MOL states its intention to deploy net zero emissions ocean-going vessels this decade as well as reducing GHG emissions by 45% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels, a big step up from international goals which tend to use 2008 as a baseline.

MOL is unlikely to be the first owner in the world to deploy a net zero emissions deepsea ship. Late last month Soren Skou, CEO of AP Moller Maersk, revealed that the world’s largest liner has now contracted a yard to build a ship running on a green fuel. In February, the Danish carrier said it would order a methanol-fuelled 2,000 teu feeder vessel this year to begin operating in 2023.