UK Government & Industry Pledges £1Bn to Accelerate Shipping Decarbonisation

Timed to the opening of London International Shipping Week 2025, the UK government announced a major financial injection into maritime decarbonisation. 

The Department for Transport will add approximately £450 million to the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme, while industry partners have pledged around £700 million to projects that improve shore communities and accelerate the shift to low‑ and zero‑emission shipping.

Launched in 2022, UK SHORE has already backed more than 200 projects and allocated around £240 million of public funding, leveraging additional private investment. 

The programme supports technology development and demonstrations across a broad decarbonisation portfolio, including electric shore power and battery systems, hydrogen, ammonia and methanol fuels, wind-assist rigs, and energy-efficiency measures.

The new funding is intended to cover activity between 2026 and 2030, giving industry a clearer five‑year planning horizon for trials, infrastructure roll‑out and scaling. 

The Government says the money will underwrite further rounds of the Zero Emissions Vessels and Infrastructure competition and the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, and will extend support for the Clean Maritime Research Hub through at least 2028.

Private-sector pledges announced alongside the government funding include more than £300 million from Peel Ports targeted at Liverpool, Hunterston, and Great Yarmouth. Additionally, approximately £250 million comes from NatPower Marine for shore-power and grid connections, and more than £148 million committed by the Port of Tyne to develop its North Side for offshore-wind logistics and related manufacturing.

Collectively, the public and private package reaches over £1 billion of new resources aimed at accelerating deployment of low‑carbon maritime infrastructure.

The package joins with the Department for Transport’s 2025 maritime decarbonisation strategy and is presented as part of a plan to position the UK as a global hub for clean maritime innovation. 

Ministers say the multi-year certainty should unlock longer-term commercial investment, support supply-chain development and help ports and coastal communities capture jobs from the energy transition.

The additional UK SHORE resources are intended to sustain competitive demonstration programmes and underwrite the commercial trials that shipowners and technology suppliers say are essential before large-scale adoption.

The government’s announcement forms part of a strategic pivot to accelerate the practical rollout of shore power, alternative fuels and vessel efficiency measures between now and 2030.
 

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