A new report from the Global Maritime Forum’s Getting to Zero Coalition provides direct insight into how leading maritime companies are advancing the transition to zero-emission shipping.
The 2026 edition of the Getting to Zero Coalition Action Framework assesses and scores the progress of coalition members across five transition categories: creating enabling conditions; incentives and market-making; first-mover and niche-market development; transition investments; and the deployment of zero-emission shipping. These areas are further broken down into 25 individual actions, with five in each category. Progress was scored as a percentage of the maximum possible score:
- Creating enable conditions (average score: 56%): Actions include transition planning, progress reporting, and policy engagement
- Incentives and market-making (average score: 47%): Actions include green loans, port incentives, and zero-emission fuel matchmaking
- First movers and niche market development (average score: 24%): Actions include green corridors, pilot and demonstration projects, and book-and-claim systems
- Transition investments (average score: 33%): Actions include zero-emission engines and ships, infrastructure, retrofits, and finance
- Deployment of zero-emission shipping (average score: 24%): Actions include fuel production facilities, fuel offtake, and vessel orders
Submitted actions revealed that Getting to Zero Coalition members tend to lead the wider maritime industry in areas like progress reporting, policy engagement, and financial transparency. However, much like the wider maritime sector, the coalition faces systemic bottlenecks that require deeper commercial commitments. Green corridors, zero-emission retrofits, offtake agreements, and green premium shipping services are still in early stages, as companies remain reluctant to make irreversible decisions without clearer demand signals and greater policy certainty.
As a way to address these challenges, the report offers several recommendations for industry actors and policymakers.
