Maersk’s green shipping plan runs up against scarce cooking oil

A.P. Moller Maersk A/S’s efforts to become carbon-neutral face an unusual hurdle: there isn’t enough used cooking oil to make the biofuel that powers the vessels.

"The biofuel is sourced from used cooking oil, but the problem is that the world doesn’t eat enough french fries,” said Chief Executive Officer Soren Skou. "We can’t keep scaling it. If our growth rates continue, we will run out of cooking oil in one or two years.” Still, Skou said the Copenhagen-based carrier, which controls a fleet of more than 700 vessels, is done ordering ships that only run on fossil fuel. Maersk has pledged to cut its own carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. About 90% of the goods across the globe are transported by the shipping industry, with Maersk accounting for one-fifth of that total. The industry is responsible for roughly 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions.