Shipping decarbonisation in Singapore

Due to its geographical location and strong infrastructure, Singapore has become one of the world’s most critical maritime nodes. As the world’s largest bunkering and transshipment hub, developments in Singapore can influence shipping decarbonisation both at home and far beyond its shores.

As shipping moves towards its 2050 targets, measuring progress will require a better understanding of where emissions occur and how they are accounted for. Drawing from publicly available shipping data and T&E analysis, we explore emissions linked to Singapore through different accounting approaches.

Situated along major East-West trade routes, Singapore hosts one of the world’s most concentrated mixes of bunkering and transshipment activity. Port throughput, vessel calls and bunker fuel sales are often used to measure Singapore’s maritime significance, but the density of vessel traffic visible in its waters ultimately reflect an extraordinary concentration of shipping activity unmatched almost anywhere else in the world. 

MPA figures show the port handled roughly 85 containers every minute in 2025, with around 90% consisting of transshipment cargo. As a result, Singapore’s shipping emissions profile is driven predominantly by its role as a global transshipment and refuelling hub serving international shipping networks.

Bringing these milestones together helps place Singapore’s current position in context, showing how today’s decarbonisation efforts compare against where the IMO, EU and Singapore itself aim the sector to be by 2030, 2040 and 2050.

Emission estimates

The following presents estimates of emissions linked to Singapore based on different approaches and datasets.

As the world’s largest bunkering hub, Singapore provides a useful window into how marine fuel markets are evolving. This section explores the fuel transitions, regulatory shifts and emerging fuel pathways shaping the sector.

Multi-fuel transition

Fuel choice is becoming an increasingly important consideration in how quickly the sector decarbonises.

Alternative fuel growth is one of the closely watched indicators in shipping decarbonisation. Expanding rapidly from a low base, Singapore has been quick to respond to new fuel demand, led by LNG and biofuel blend bunkering. 

Under prevailing B24 and B30 blending specifications, roughly three-quarters of these volumes remain conventional fossil fuels. Available market information also suggests that much of the biofuel component supplied in Singapore is imported through regional supply chains. 

While Singapore is emerging as an orchestrator of evolving marine fuel pathways, much of the growth continues to rely on fossil fuel infrastructure.

Regulation compliance

Policy signals can trigger significant changes in long-standing industry practices.

The IMO 2020 sulfur cap provided a clear regulatory requirement for the shift from heavy fuel oil (HFO) toward very-low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO). Comparing bunker sales between 2019 and 2025 shows how quickly Singapore’s bunker market adjusted following the implementation of the regulation.

This shift provides evidence that regulation can be highly effective in changing market behaviour, which matters because the next wave of targets is coming.

Conclusion

This analysis does not produce a single definitive shipping emissions number for Singapore. Rather, it demonstrates how emissions linked to Singapore can be estimated through different accounting approaches.

By vessel type, container ships and tankers dominate. 

By voyage activity, Europe and Northeast Asia lead.

By operational activity, emissions are concentrated at berth.

By fuel sales, bunker-related emissions far exceed national emissions.

Initiatives such as OCEANS-X, the Maritime Digital Twin and Singapore-Rotterdam Green and Digital Shipping Corridor suggest that transparency is becoming an important part of decarbonising shipping. As the sector moves towards its targets, monitoring and tracking emissions will be essential for measuring progress.