Coastal Shipping Investment Approach Report 1 - State of Play

The release by the NZ government of the Coastal Shipping Investment Approach State-of-Play report provides useful insights into the opportunities for biofuels to be an important step towards a more sustainable coastal shipping sector.

The RFQ for this work describes this first report on the 'State of Play' as forming the basis for the next two stages of the work, stakeholder views and final report including recommendations, and also to help government to better understand the current state of the sector.  The report provides:

• key information on the scale and nature of the sector as well as the key routes and services that are operating.  It should touch on which infrastutue (in addition to ports) is currently playing an important supporting role - inland ports for example.
• summaryof recent developments in the international shipping industry that have recently affected, or are still affecting, the sector. This should touch on the recent and ongoing congestion issues its impact on domestic freight ships.
• a brief summary of how alternative fuel sources development is progressing and its potential to replce current fossil fuels in the coastal shipping sector over the short-medium term.  We are particularly interested in the short-medium impacts of biofuels and hydrogen.
• information on relevant recent policy developments in other jurisdictions that New Zealand could potentially learn from.
• a summary of key information gaps and views on which of these gaps can be filled through engaging with sector participants.