Denmark announces alliance on green fuels in India

Photo: A.P. Moller-Maersk

Denmark has announced its Green Fuels Alliance India initiative in a bid to boost collaborative efforts between the two countries in the sustainable energy-solutions sector and advance their joint global goal toward 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 organizations 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 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,” he said. “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 endeavors of greening its development. The Green Fuels Alliance India is powering initiatives within the energy transition. May our joint contributions be significant and inspirational.”

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

• An 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

“The availability of green energy and green fuel in sufficient quantities at cost-competitive price levels is the single largest challenge to global shipping’s net-zero journey,” said Morten Bo Christiansen, A.P. Moller-Maersk’s head of energy transition. “India has excellent conditions for renewable energy production and ambitions to be a global leader in the green-energy value chain. Drawing on our more than 100 years of business relations with the nation, we are very excited to join the involved Indian and Danish stakeholders as a founding member of the Green Fuels Alliance India.”

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 tons of fossil fuel move 11 billion tons of goods around the world.

This makes shipping accountable for around 1,076 million tons of CO2 emissions annually—around 3 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Maersk said it is committed to playing its part in getting shipping to net zero 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 16,000-20-foot equivalent (TEU) vessel, will be added to service in February.

Maersk has secured sufficient green 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.

 “We look forward to working with the Danish government and industry to support offtake and trade in hydrogen, hydrogen derivates and eFuels,” said Jillian Evanko, president and CEO of Chart Industries and founding member of the India Hydrogen Alliance. “Maritime-transport decarbonization 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 eFuels 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.