From wake-up call to global coalition: How Maersk is pushing shipping toward net zero

How Maersk is rewriting the rules of shipping decarbonization – through collaboration, purpose, and placing big bets on the fuels of the future.

What happens when one of the world’s largest shipping companies decides not to wait for regulation – but to lead by collaboration?

In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD President David Bach sits down with Morten Bo Christiansen, Senior Vice President and Head of Energy Transition at Maersk, and Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, to unpack one of the most ambitious transformations in business: the race to net-zero-emission shipping.

From ordering vessels with dual-fuel methanol engines to securing long-term bio- and e-methanol offtake agreements, both leaders share how they’re building a collaborative approach that includes the entire shipping ecosystem, tackling regulatory battles, and dealing with the fact that only about 2% of Maersk's customers currently pay the green premium.

“The only way to avoid the complexity that we have today, would be to do nothing“, Morten Bo Christiansen says, “and that’s not really an option.”