Maria Gallucci

Batteries can already power the lights and equipment on giant ships, and certainly smaller vessels can be fully battery-powered today.

Design fixes like super sleek hulls and dolphin-like flippers can improve ships' efficiency.

And another technology that's quickly gaining traction is called wind-assisted propulsion, which puts a modern twist on an old idea of harnessing wind.

One cargo ship I sailed on in the North Sea uses devices called rotor sails.

These are 60-foot-tall tubes that spin around like hyperactive barber's poles, which produces a forward thrust and reduces demand on the diesel engines.

it's really exciting to see these things whip around.

But it's funny how almost blasé the crew was about the whole thing.

They push a button, the tubes roll to life, the ship saves fuel, and they can all carry on with their normal tasks as we sailed from Rotterdam to this industrial eyesore in northern England and back again.

Meanwhile, of course, I spent my time admiring the sails and then curling up in the fetal position as the sea knocked our ship around.

The maritime industry is at a pivotal moment in its long and storied history.

Over the last two centuries, fossil fuels have powered the freighters that have transformed global trade, connecting cotton fields to far-flung garment factories and bringing blueberries from one side of the equator to the other.

Coal-powered steamships made it possible to travel farther and faster, and diesel engines took this into overdrive.

What began in the early 20th century as a humble canal boat puttering along with this tiny engine has since become giant container ships that stretch as long as skyscrapers stand tall.

We know that to keep the planet from warming further, we must completely transform the way that we power our homes, our cars, and the freighters that bring us all our precious stuff.

The shipping industry must join the rest of the world in addressing climate change, and it could do that with the help of green ammonia.

Thank you so much.