On 25 June 2025, Germany’s maritime community gathered in Hamburg: NOW GmbH, once again in collaboration with the Maritime Plattform, hosted the seventh Zero Emission Shipping Symposium. This year’s focus was on green shipping initiatives and green shipping corridors.
Dagmar Fehler, CEO and Spokesperson of NOW GmbH, said: “At this year’s Zero Emission Shipping Symposium, we are focusing on the concrete market ramp-up of climate-neutral shipping corridors. The large number of ambitious projects shows that the maritime energy transition is no longer a vision, but is becoming reality. As a central interface between politics, business and science, NOW GmbH supports this change through targeted programme support, funding advice and knowledge transfer – for a sustainable and internationally competitive shipping industry in the spirit of climate protection.”
Rolf Stiefel, Chair of the Executive Board of the Maritime Plattform, said: “The regulatory environment for climate protection is not only developing locally and in the European Union, but the IMO also presented concrete measures at MEPC 82 to decarbonise global shipping. Different technical solutions for climate neutrality and improved efficiency are available to cover the various shipping segments. The Zero Emission Shipping Symposium focused on concrete ways to accelerate implementation. It is important to make the framework conditions attractive for first movers.”
Green shipping initiatives from all shipping segments
This year’s symposium focuses on the scalable introduction of climate-neutral shipping corridors and maritime supply chains. Participants will discuss national and international initiatives, pilot projects, funding programmes and the market readiness of green corridors with concrete implementation scenarios. In addition, the progress of selected funding projects focusing on climate protection technologies in the field of alternative ship propulsion systems and fuels will be presented.
Green shipping corridors are a key area of action in the National Action Plan for Climate-Friendly Shipping (NAPS – Nationalen Aktionsplan klimafreundliche Schifffahrt), which is being developed since May 2024 with the participation of a wide range of maritime stakeholders and is intended to serve as a roadmap for climate-neutral shipping in Germany. The green corridors refer to international model routes on which climate-neutral technologies are being tested for the first time. As part of the NAPS development process, NOW GmbH is supporting the project initiatives on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) in order to identify implementation measures for the NAPS and to support these in their planning and implementation.
- The BMV and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE – Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie) are already supporting shipping on its way to the net-zero emissions target with various funding programmes:
- With its funding programmes for the sustainable modernisation of coastal and inland waterway vessels, the BMV is promoting cross-technology investments in fleet modernisation in both shipping markets in order to contribute to air pollution control and climate protection.
- In addition, the BMV supports the use of innovative technologies for environmentally friendly on-board power supply and mobile shore power supply for sea-going and inland waterway vessels through the BordstromTech funding programme.
- Through the National Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP), the BMV specifically supports the development and demonstration of fuel cells for use in both inland waterway and maritime shipping.
- The BMWE’s Maritime Research Programme supports research, development and demonstration of climate protection technologies for shipping in the funding priority area ‘zeroGHG – Climate-Neutral Ships’.
Image rights: Franz Josef Berlin
About NOW GmbH
Since 2008, NOW GmbH has been supporting the federal government’s targets in its climate and industrial policy. The tasks of the federally-owned company include developing, monitoring and evaluating funding programmes about climate-neutral mobility and energy supply. NOW GmbH experts supervise projects in the areas of hydrogen, fuel cells, battery and renewable fuels. They reimagine mobility and fuels for cars, buses, trains, commercial vehicles, ships and airplanes, and support the establishment and further development of charging infrastructure and hydrogen refuelling stations for cars and trucks. More information on NOW can be found here.
