Decarbonizing Ports and Shipping is one of the first Frontier areas for exploration launched by the MIT Climate Project in 2025 through a Request for Proposals issues to MIT faculty and principal investigators.
Port in Jakarta, Indonesia (Image: Tom Fisk, Pexels)
Problem and Impact
Transportation generates about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with shipping contributing roughly 3%. Ports handle nearly 90% of global trade, positioning them as both economic hubs and major sources of emissions and local air pollution. As intermodal nodes connecting maritime transport with trucking, rail, and aviation, their vulnerabilities affect entire supply chains. More than 80% of ports face significant flood risk, many of them located near communities already burdened by environmental and health inequities.
Transforming ports and shipping is therefore a powerful lever to cut emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and improve quality of life. Globally, decarbonizing port and maritime systems could reduce up to 1 Gt CO₂e annually by 2050 while sharply reducing air pollution for hundreds of millions of people and supporting more sustainable economic growth.
Vision
We envision clean, resilient ports and shipping systems where economic growth, environmental health, and community well-being reinforce one another. Achieving this future requires aligning today’s fragmented ecosystem by convening stakeholders and enabling coordinated decarbonization.
Ports become anchors of industrial transition, producing and distributing alternative fuels through value chains that link generation, storage, and delivery while protecting community health and supporting local jobs. Flexible infrastructure adapts to evolving propulsion needs, improves freight efficiency, and withstands extreme weather, turning ports into global hubs of clean technology, economic opportunity, and shared prosperity.
Example Areas for Innovation
- Developing approaches for the production, storage and distribution of green ammonia, green hydrogen, and other renewable fuels.
- Predicting environmental (climate, water quality, air quality, and/or ecosystem) impacts of alternative shipping fuels, such as ammonia, methanol, or hydrogen.
- Designing innovative financial and policy mechanisms to support decarbonization of ports and shipping including partnerships with green shipping corridors.
- Developing analytical and strategic pathways for intermodal shifts across trucking, aviation, rail and shipping including consideration of supply chain resilience and port competitiveness.
- Creating integrated shore-power and battery microgrid systems that electrify cargo handling, cranes, and vessels at berth while serving as resilience hubs for surrounding communities.
- Piloting participatory “Port-Community Labs” that incorporate residents in planning for noise, light, and pollution reduction measures, ensuring local well-being and workforce inclusion.
- Reimagining port planning through adaptive zoning that separates heavy freight zones from mixed-use waterfront areas, integrates green buffers, and enables redevelopment of underutilized parcels.
- Developing regional training and certification programs that prepare port workers, technicians, and community members for new roles in electrified equipment maintenance, data-driven logistics, and clean shipping operations.