The UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK Shore), is a new unit housed in the Department for Transport, offering investment to support zero-emission sailing and research and development in order to “make journeys by sea as green as they were hundreds of years ago”.

UK Shore will run a multi-year clean maritime demonstration competition and will work in partnership with industry to tackle supply and demand issues around ship construction.

It will also develop infrastructure to enable more zero-emission technologies to power newer and cleaner ships, such as hydrogen, electric and ammonia fuels. 

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he wanted UK Shore to take the maritime industry “back to the future” to a “second green age”.

“As we turn the tide for green shipping, I can’t wait to see thousands of new jobs created around the country too – from master shipbuilding to the high-tech sailors of tomorrow,” he added.

Details of funding will be revealed in the coming months and will be open to a range of UK organisations – from small businesses to universities. 

The maritime minister announced the new funding on Thursday (10 March) in Southampton.

Courts said: “We are building a green maritime legacy for generations to come. This is the biggest single investment in green shipping in the past hundred years, and is a further demonstration that the government is committed to working with the sector to develop the green shipping technologies of tomorrow.”

The scheme will aid the government’s aim for all vessels to be zero emission by 2050.