“Since I studied [sustainability] in my undergrad, I've been interested in pursuing my career in this field, but, of course, this field is pretty wide,” reflects Ka Lai Or, a second-year graduate student in UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES). She expresses a common sentiment among students: how on earth do you find your place in an overwhelming ocean of options?
Seeking opportunities for career development and exploration, Ka Lai found the Sustainability Scholars Program, a paid internship program which provides graduate students with hands-on experience doing research for sustainability partners.
Through this program, she worked with C40’s Green Ports Forum on a project that focuses on decarbonizing BC’s maritime industry. These efforts tie into BC’s broader climate change initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16% under 2007 levels by 2025 and by 80% by 2050.
C40’s project in particular caught Or’s attention because of her previous experience, having worked for two years at an international container shipping company as an ESG Practitioner. She saw a chance to broaden her horizons: “I have never worked for a non-profit or an international organisation before, so I think it's a great opportunity for myself to kind of understand more about the maritime shipping industry from another angle.”
What does it mean to decarbonize the maritime industry?
Decarbonizing BC’s maritime industry means more than simply swapping out traditionally used fossil fuels with zero-emission fuels.
Or takes a more comprehensive approach by asking, “how much emissions are actually generated from the whole life cycle of producing, and then transporting, and then consuming these fuels?” More succinctly, she calls this “Well-to-Wake” emissions.
Through this lens, the transition to zero-emission fuels must be an all-hands-on-deck operation. It involves not just fuel producers, port operators, and ship owners, but also investors and other collaborators.
Who acts first: Offtakers or Suppliers?
Or describes the maritime industry as “fragmented” because “it consists of many segments.” Fuel Offtakers—consumers capable of kickstarting demand for zero-emission fuels—include cargo owners, commercial cruise owners, and much more. These groups may have vastly different needs and wants. While ongoing research and development gives them “several options for zero-emission maritime fuels, or maybe even more in the future," the endless possibilities also come with risks.
Due to this, “the industry, and the different segments and companies within them, don't know which one to go for,” Or expands.
Fuel Suppliers' needs and wants are also incompatible; to minimize risks, they want long-term purchase agreements with stable pricing models. On the Fuel Offtakers' side, they prefer short-term sales agreements to mitigate their own risks.
Not to mention, the priorities of investors, governments, and regulators are all pivotal to supporting zero-emission fuel projects.
With uncertainty both between and within the maritime industry, decarbonizing BC’s maritime industry proves to be a daunting task.
Combining global case studies with local contexts
To address this, Or started with finding an anchor point: “The first part [of the research] was a global jurisdictional scan. I looked into what kind of collaboratives or initiatives already exist out there.” One of the five case studies Or investigates is Hintco’s H2Double mechanism, which provides a solution by establishing both long and short-term hydrogen purchase agreements, for suppliers and consumers respectively, through a double auction system.
“Part two of the research was to know more about how these initiatives came about, and meanwhile [we] try to see how this can be applied in BC,” Or explains, referring to the interviews she conducted with a few of the leaders behind the initiatives, as well as local stakeholders.
With this method, Or considers the province’s unique capabilities as a seaport city and as a member of the Pacific Northwest (PNW), along with its existing partnerships and policies. One promising project which BC is a part of is the North Pacific Green Corridor Consortium, which aims to build a zero-emission shipping corridor between Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
After doing so, she then wrote up short, middle, and long-term recommendations on how to establish a clear demand signal—an indicator to identify a need for zero-emission fuels within the maritime industry, determine how much and what kind of fuels are needed, as well as verify who will produce, buy, and distribute these fuels.
Strengthening Canada as a valuable investment area also helps it be globally competitive, positioning it as a place that can offer support for zero-emission fuel projects operating locally.
Or also emphasizes the need for an integrator, a well-known, trustworthy person or entity who acts as a connector between all parts of the industry. Ideally, they would manage collaborations, build consensus between stakeholders, and resolve conflicts, ensuring BC’s maritime industry’s own decarbonization strategies and initiatives are being steered in the right direction.
"Decarbonizing the maritime industry requires a complete rethink of the supply chain as well as new collaboration across sectors. There’s a global shift underway in how we fuel ships, with the International Maritime Organization pushing for 5% of fuels to be zero-emission by 2030, and major customers like Amazon and IKEA demanding zero-emission shipping to meet their climate targets. BC needs a clear strategy to play a key role in this new fuel system and capitalize on the economic opportunities of supplying the fuels of the future. Working with Ka Lai has been inspiring—her dedication and insights are a great example of how innovative research can empower the next generation of climate leaders."
– Juvarya Veltkamp
A treasure trove of opportunities and connections
Or also saw the importance of connection during her own internship.
From the onset, what stood out to her was the warm welcome: “[A colleague] sent me a message and said, ‘let me know if you need something. Just let me know if you want to have a Zoom coffee chat to see some faces.’ That [was] very, very nice of her to do.”
Beyond this, Or appreciated the networking events. “[My mentor] also made sure that I had other kinds of professional development opportunities, because I think in July—in Whistler there was an economic forum for the Pacific Northwest region” she recalls, detailing when she met with her project mentor, Juvarya Veltkamp, the Senior Advisor for C40’s Green Ports Forum, to attend the 33rd Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) Annual Summit. “We got invited to join a roundtable discussion for the hydrogen economy.”
Her prior experience also made a smooth onboarding process, since “[she] was comfortable with the terminology they used.” What defined the experience, however, were the people. “I bonded with the colleagues, and I developed friendly relationship with them,” she noted. “I would say the people [are] one of the very great things that happened.”
Time to prioritize putting pen to paper
Connecting with others, Or realized, was foundational to her success, whether it was through the interpersonal support she got from her co-workers and mentors, or through the interviews that made up the core of her research.
That is the reason why she pushes for continued collective action to adopt zero-emission fuels. “There should be some [kind of] engagement or collaborative between parties to get together to discuss—not only discuss, but to actually ink something,” Or insists (emphasis added).
Most glaringly, Or brings attention to how BC’s maritime industry is absent from the province’s current policy toolkits that support the economic development of sustainable energy, such as BC’s Hydrogen Strategy.
Her wishes are, likewise, reflected in what she wants to achieve with her research: “I also want to make it applicable. Other than report writing, we also have been sharing these findings to the maritime industry people.”
Supporting this goal, she presented her findings to maritime stakeholders at one of the Town Halls hosted by the Vancouver Maritime Centre for Climate. Beyond local events, Ka Lai has been invited by C40 to join the Green Ports Forum annual meeting in Barcelona, hosted by C40 and the City and Port of Barcelona, in early November. Further, the report is being translated to simplified Chinese in hopes of reaching even broader audiences.
From a personal standpoint, Or’s involvement with this research project gave her newfound confidence and hope: “If my work of analyzing great efforts from different people and great insights from different people could inform the maritime stakeholders about what BC could apply or reference from, then that would be super great.”
Ka Lai Or’s report, Charting the path forward: Recommendations for catalyzing zero-emission maritime fuel adoption in British Columbia, was sponsored by C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and can be read in full in the project library.
For more information about the UBC Sustainability Hub, and specifically the Sustainability Scholars program, please contact sustainability.scholars@ubc.ca