A new report from the Getting to Zero Coalition identifies 25 new green shipping corridors – trade routes designed to demonstrate and scale novel zero-emission fuels, vessels, and technologies – launched this last year, expanding the global total to 84 active initiatives.
At a Crossroads: Annual Progress Report on Green Shipping Corridors 2025 reveals that new initiatives have been launched in major developing economies like China, India, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, and Kenya.
For the first time since the report’s inception in 2022, four corridors have now reached the ‘realization stage’ where construction and operation begin to take place. However, many corridors remain stalled by a 'feasibility wall' created by the cost gap between conventional and zero-emission fuels.
There are now over 300 stakeholders involved in green corridors, up from 240 in the previous edition. Port authorities continue to be key leaders, with public sector and governmental actors following closely behind them. The vessel owner/operator category increased by over 30% since last year, which could indicate that port and government-led initiatives are having more success finding partners in shipping. The one category with no positive movement on the stakeholder side is financial institutions. This could be due to engagement with financiers occurring outside the core green corridor consortia.
This year’s findings also reveal that some government-funded initiatives have stalled after feasibility studies have been completed, suggesting a gap between government priorities and industry interests. While companies have leveraged government funding to explore fuel options and thereby reduce their in-house research costs, this has not yielded action in many cases. In contrast, initiatives with high industry involvement have been progressing the fastest, as indicated by the four green corridors now in the realization stage.
Out of the 84 initiatives in this year’s edition, 24 are in the Initiation stage, 44 (16 early and 28 advanced) are in Exploration, 12 are in Preparation, and four are in Realization. Additionally, one-third of last year’s 59 initiatives have progressed between or within stages while the other two-thirds have maintained their progress status.
“We have at least 12 months before the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework is adopted,” said Jesse Fahnestock, director of decarbonization at the Global Maritime Forum. “That time can either be spent waiting, or used to build projects that create strategic economic advantages, generate learnings that can influence the IMO’s reward mechanism, and put participants first in line for future global rewards. Those who act now will be best positioned to benefit when regulation catches up.”
