There is a myth flying around (or should I say sailing around) that the maritime industry is falling behind other sectors when it comes to switching to greener fuels.

With the car industry barrelling towards an electric future, people point to shipping as being backwards in its use of heavy fuel. But that’s not the whole story.

Most cars now rely on unleaded fuel which is highly refined. But what is left over? That’s heavy fuel. And where does this end up? Of course, used by ships!

So, the maritime industry is using what the automotive industry leaves behind, a product people would rather not think about. In many ways it is the ultimate form of recycling and called heavy fuel.

Then we were told we couldn’t do this anymore and we need to switch to diesel power. But that is also now frowned upon for its carbon dioxide (CO₂) output.

The irony of all this is that while drivers in their all-electric vehicles feel happy with themselves for saving the planet, as ever there is a lot more to it than that.

People forget to ask themselves: where does power come from to generate electricity? That’s right, mostly from diesel generators!

Most experts agree that diesel generators are only about 35-40% efficient when it comes to converting that power into electricity.

Using this basis, for every 1 kWh of electricity produced, about 2.5-3.3 litres of diesel fuel is used. This is significantly more than the amount of fuel used in other forms of electricity generation, such as natural gas or nuclear power (source 1).

So effectively we have come full circle; in that no power can be made without the use of a different form of fuel. And there are no easy answers when choosing one over another.

We are all guilty of thinking that other people will sort the problems that we face. Governments arguably operate in the short-term, making policies that will keep them elected as long as they can.

Ministers come and go, parties get voted in and out; so there is little continuity in many countries on policy on many issues. And that’s before we get onto the issue of every country in the world cooperating, particularly the biggest resource-consuming nations of the world, without whom much of this would be worthless.

What is the answer to this? Well energy producers cannot operate and think by themselves without considering the knock-on effect of what they do to producers of other energies.

Similarly large-scale makers of consumable items also cannot operate in a solo capacity – steelmakers, plastic makers, food producers – they all need to work together.

Without all parties getting round the table to work out a holistic long-term strategy to reducing the use of emissions harmful to the planet we will continue to go round in circles.

Quite simply, the planet does not have time for humans to dither while they think of their own pockets. We collectively have too much to lose.