How to clean up the world's dirtiest industry | Joojin Kim

Decarbonizing the global shipping industry serves as a critical, yet overlooked, lever for climate action. If the shipping sector were a country, it would rank as the world's sixth-largest greenhouse gas emitter. This industry creates a climate problem on three fronts: the fossil fuels transported, the dirty fuel burned for propulsion, and the coal-intensive steel used in ship construction. East Asia, particularly South Korea, acts as a central choke point for this system, dominating shipbuilding, steel production, and financing. By redirecting capital away from fossil fuel expansion and toward clean alternatives like green ammonia and hydrogen-based steel, the global economy can accelerate its energy transition. Strategic interventions in these concentrated supply chains could eliminate up to 2.2 gigatons of annual emissions by 2032, transforming shipping from a conduit of pollution into a driver of sustainable trade.