July 28, 2025
The UK government has revealed that it will allocate £30 million to decarbonise shipping while supporting jobs and skills.
As announced, coastal communities across the UK are to benefit from £30 million funding to decarbonise shipping and power up local economies. The move was announced by the Maritime Minister on 24 July, during a visit to Clydeport in Glasgow.
Awarded from the sixth round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC), successful companies will be given a share of funding to support the development of clean maritime fuels and technologies such as ammonia, hydrogen, methanol, solar and electric.
According to the statement, investment in green fuels not only supports the decarbonisation of shipping, helping cement the UK as a clean energy power but it also revitalises coastal communities by growing local economies and boosting jobs and skills.
We’ve charted a course to net zero shipping by 2050 and this £30 million will be crucial in supporting the green fuels and technologies of the future, so we can clean up sea travel and trade.
…said Mike Kane, UK Maritime Minister.
Furthermore, during his visit to Clydeport, the minister will meet with workers from the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, which is looking to help Smart Green Shipping scale up the manufacturing of the FastRig windsail going forward. The project received £3.3 million from the third round of the CMDC and has now been successfully deployed at sea.
Clean maritime is a vital part of a wider mission to decarbonise transport. Advanced manufacturing is critical to enable companies to scale up novel solutions that deliver emissions reductions and allow the creation of new jobs in these industries of the future.
…stated Chris Courtney, CEO, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.
Diane Gilpin, CEO, Smart Green Shipping (SGS) echoed Courtney’s statement and highlighted that SGS is also working alongside the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland to design circular manufacturing solutions to reduce embedded emissions and minimise use of precious materials while creating good green jobs as part of a sustainable just transition.
The Minister will also meet with Peel Ports and local workers at Clydeport’s King George V Docks, where £3 million is being invested to support the handling of large wind turbine components for the renewable energy sector.
Additionally, UK SHORE is providing £3.85 million to the Clean Maritime Research Hub, a consortium of 13 UK universities focused on clean maritime research. This funding will support ongoing scientific work and the installation of a liquid hydrogen facility at Durham University, advancing the UK’s climate goals and efforts to decarbonize shipping.
The centre will develop the maritime sector’s understanding of the potential impact of liquid hydrogen, which is emission free, in the maritime transition.
To remind, following an industry consultation that concluded earlier this year, the UK published its interim response regarding the expansion of the UK ETS to the maritime sector, stating its intention for the regime to begin on 1 July 2026.
