Mr. Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Chairman of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, or GCMD, 

Professor Lynn Loo, Chief Executive Officer, GCMD, 

Ms. Quah Ley Hoon, my esteemed predecessor and former Chief Executive of MPA, 

Distinguished guests, 

Industry partners, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

1    A very good evening.

2    I am pleased to join you tonight as we celebrate GCMD’s fifth anniversary.

3    Five years ago, MPA and six Founding Partners set up GCMD to answer a difficult question: how do we turn our decarbonisation ambition into solutions that work across the world’s seas, ports, and supply chains?

4    At the time, new fuels were largely untested, industry targets were only beginning to take shape, and few knew where to start. GCMD was created to help the industry find its way. 

5    As GCMD marks its first five years, let me make three points: adoption, trust and partnership. 

• Adoption – how GCMD has narrowed the gap between developing solutions and adopting them. 
• Trust – how GCMD’s role in building trust will become more important in the years ahead. 
• Partnership – why GCMD’s continued success will depend on all of us. 

From pilots to practical solutions

6    First, adoption. The industry does not lack promising solutions. It lacks answers to the practical questions every shipowner asks before committing: Is it safe? Does it work under real operating conditions? What must change for it to scale? 

7    These are the hardest questions to answer, and GCMD has made them its work. In doing so, it has become a beacon for the industry, showing where it can move forward with confidence.

8    One example is ammonia. It is a promising fuel, but also a toxic one, so GCMD started with safety. Its studies laid the groundwork for ammonia bunkering in Singapore, and we look forward to a successful trial in time to come.  

9    Another is biofuels. Proving that ships can bunker and run on biofuel was only the start. The harder question was whether buyers could rely on what they received: the right quantity, the right quality and the emission reductions promised. 

10    GCMD’s trials on biofuels tackled exactly that, and its findings on fuel quality have helped shape Singapore’s Technical Reference 140 for marine biofuel.

11    Sometimes the hurdle is financial rather than technical. So GCMD brought together Singapore, Asian and international financial institutions to set up the Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies, or FEET.

12    This 35 million US Dollars fund helps shipowners overcome the cost barriers that have long held back the adoption of energy efficiency technologies.

13    These examples reflect the philosophy and important contributions of GCMD: taking on problems no single company can solve alone, bringing the right partners together, and generating evidence the wider industry can use.

From working solutions to trusted solutions 

14    This brings me to my second point: trust. 

15    As new fuels and technologies scale up, it will no longer be enough to know that a solution works. We will also need confidence in the emissions reductions it actually delivers.

16    That is why measurement, reporting and verification, or MRV, will grow in importance.

17    We welcome GCMD’s plan to embed MRV more deeply in its pilots, and to make emissions reductions consistent and comparable across different pathways.

18    This matters for Singapore too. As we build a trusted hub for alternative marine fuels, we will need robust systems that give shipowners, fuel suppliers and other stakeholders confidence in the fuels and solutions they adopt.

19    Certification schemes will remain important, but real-world data and robust MRV can show that emissions reductions are delivered in practice, not just on paper. 

Taking the next step together

20    My final point is about partnership. 

21    MPA has long been a partner and supporter of GCMD. This spirit of partnership runs across the wider shipping industry. At a recent event, a former leader of a major international shipping organisation remarked that our industry is unique in how actively and closely it works together to create solutions, unlike any other sector he has seen in his career. I could not agree more. 

22    GCMD embodies this, bringing industry partners together to develop common solutions to shared challenges. This is reflected in GCMD’s network of over 140 partners at the centre and project levels.

23    GCMD’s first-of-a-kind projects also bring together all parties across the value chain to find practical solutions to problems no one has faced before.

24    That willingness to work through the unknown has brought us this far, and it will carry us into the next chapter.

25    But this next chapter will need many more hands. With maritime decarbonisation facing greater uncertainty and stronger headwinds, collaboration and pragmatism matter more than ever.

26    So, my call tonight is simple: step forward.

27    Bring your hardest problems to GCMD. Participate in the trials. Share the risks, the data and the evidence. And help carry solutions from demonstration to adoption.

28    Better still, join GCMD as a partner. Partnerships come in many forms, from strategic and impact partners to coalition and programme partners. Whatever your capacity, there is a place for you.

29    Let me also thank PSA, a strategic partner of GCMD, for providing tonight’s venue.

30    In closing, our success will not be measured by how many pilots we run, but by how many become solutions the industry can adopt with confidence, at scale.

31    Congratulations to Lynn and the GCMD team, the Founding Partners, and everyone who has been part of GCMD’s journey over the past five years.

32    MPA looks forward to continuing this partnership, and to seeing GCMD push the boundaries once again in the next five years.

33    Thank you.