Survey: Canadian Consumers are Willing to Pay to Decarbonize Shipping

The shipping industry needs massive investments if it wants to transform its fuel supply and set a clear path to net zero emissions. United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that it will cost between $8 billion and $28 billion annually to decarbonize ships by 2050. The cost shoots up exponentially when the necessary infrastructure is taken into consideration.

Shipping lines, governments and port authorities are under pressure to commit resources and invest in decarbonization measures to help fight climate change. However, the big question has been whether consumers would be willing to pay their fair share to help cut the industry’s emissions.

A Shipping Confidence Index survey in Canada now offers a glimpse of consumers’ awareness on the need to arrest shipping emissions and their readiness to pay to tackle them. In the survey - carried out by non-profit organization Angus Reid Institute in partnership with Clear Seas - Canadians have expressed their willingness to contribute to reducing carbon emission by paying extra on items shipped from overseas.

The survey found out that two-thirds of Canadians, about 64 percent, are ready to pay as much as five percent more on shipped goods to contribute resources to decarbonize merchant shipping. The bulk of surveyed consumers, 45 percent, would pay two percent or less. Demographically, younger Canadians below the age of 35 and women are more willing to pay extra to reduce or offset shipping emissions. The survey was based on a sample of 1,610 Canadians.

Seven-in-ten Canadians view marine shipping as critical or very important to the country’s economy, while more than half of the population believes the industry has grown in importance over the past 20 years. 52 percent of Canadians weigh the economic contributions of shipping as balanced against environmental risks.

For Canadians, hydrogen is viewed as a potential future fuel source. 67 percent of those surveyed said that they would prefer the country to use hydrogen domestically to decarbonize its own industries, including shipping, rather than export it abroad. Only 17 percent say the country should not invest in hydrogen at all.

Canada has already developed a comprehensive hydrogen strategy aimed at ensuring it becomes a producer, user and exporter of low-carbon hydrogen and associated technologies. Over 80 low-carbon hydrogen production projects are already in various stages of development.