ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives Volume IIView all 67 articles
Global Coordination and Challenges of Technical Standards and Application Specifications for Marine Clean Alternative Fuels in the IMO's New Emission Reduction Regulations
Provisionally accepted
- 1Weifang University, Weifang, China
- 2University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
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The maritime sector is speeding up its shift to net-zero emissions in response to the growing urgency of addressing climate change. The pressure to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction in shipping has intensified, making marine clean alternative fuels a key driver of the sector's transformation and upgrading. Research on clean energy technologies such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, biofuels and battery/hybrid power has reached a significant stage internationally, with real-ship applications and commercial deployment steadily advancing. The International Maritime Organization has issued strategies to encourage the adoption of alternative fuels, and many shipping nations have formulated industrial policies and technical standards to support clean energy development. Overall, the formulation of technical standards and specifications for marine clean alternative fuels still lags behind the rapid development of relevant technologies. In order to encourage innovation and the application of marine alternative fuel technologies, future efforts by which to improve regulations and standards for these technologies should concentrate on developing a thorough standardization system, improving port-related infrastructure, refining industrial policies, advancing green shipping corridor cooperation, promoting maritime regulatory reform and developing innovative training systems for seafarers and shore-based personnel.
Keywords: shipping decarbonization, marine clean alternative fuels, Standardization system, clean energy, carbon neutrality
Received: 10 Aug 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Liu, Zhang, Zhao and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaofei Liu
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