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ENERGIX-Stort program energi

curbing Fisheries and Aquacultures Maritime air Emissions

Alternative title: Reduksjon av utslipp til luft fra maritim transport i sjømatnæringen

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Norway aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 to 55 percent relative to 1990 levels by 2030, and to become a low-emission society by 2050. While the political platform of the current Government (Hurdalsplattformen) requests policy instruments to promote a green transition of fishing and aquaculture vessels there is currently a lack of knowledge of how to realize this. Inequalities in energy use, technology needs and abatement costs for different species, vessel, and gear types, conflicting seafood policy objectives and shared responsibility among environmental, maritime, and seafood governance jointly impede decarbonizing of maritime transports in the seafood industry. FAME is an interdisciplinary project targeting this knowledge gap by mapping technological, economic, and political feasibilities of policy instruments such as technical standards or carbon taxes for decarbonizing the seafood industry’s maritime transports. The project is carried out in close cooperation with stakeholder partners, and key results will be made available through a suite of models and a roadmap of political and business feasible solutions. Guidance from a multi-stakeholder forum will ensure whole-of-government coordination. FAME will commence in May 2023. It is managed by Institute of Transport Economics and constitutes a PhD position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The project is further undertaken in cooperation with the Universities of South-Eastern Norway and Turku (Finland) and 9 stakeholder partners (public sector stakeholders Directorate of Fisheries; Norwegian Environment Agency; Norwegian Maritime Authority; Norwegian Coastal Administration; industry stakeholder organisations Kystrederiene (aquaculture), Fiskarlaget and Fiskebåt (fisheries); and maritime energy system providers Corvus Energy and ABB) that together make up a strong and diverse knowledge-base for decarbonizing vessel transport.

The Norwegian Government has requested instruments to promote a green transition of fishing and aquaculture vessels in the seafood industry, but there is currently a lack of knowledge of how this should take place. Since the industry is heterogeneous and spans three main value chains (aquaculture, demersal fisheries and pelagic fisheries) with varying licence and quota regulations, decarbonisation is challenging since there is inequality in energy use, technology needs and abatement costs for different species, vessel, and gear types. Political decarbonisation feasibility is further complicated due to conflicting seafood policy objectives surrounding employment, regional development, and marine resource management, and because vessel operations constitute a shared responsibility of environmental, maritime, and seafood governance. To address this, FAME is an interdisciplinary project that will create new knowledge and expertise to support the Norwegian government objective to decarbonise maritime transport in the seafood industry. Decarbonisation will involve trade-offs that will take centre stage in FAME, and key project outcomes will be mappings of technological, economic, and political feasibilities of policy instruments for decarbonising the industry’s maritime transport. The project will be carried out in close cooperation with stakeholder partners, and key results will be made available to policy makers and public bodies through a suite of models as well as a roadmap (here called ‘seamap’) of political and business feasible solutions. Objectives will be achieved through an innovative project design combining top-down and bottom-up and short- and long-term analyses. Guidance from a multi-stakeholder forum will ensure whole-of-government coordination to identify and mitigate divergencies between sectoral priorities, and promote the development of holistic policies.

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Funding scheme:

ENERGIX-Stort program energi