The Green Corridor: 2026 The Green Transition Picks Up Speed

Five years have past since the beginning of LogiSYM’s Green Corridor. In those days, 2025 was pegged as a milestone year on most organisations’ sustainability roadmaps. Well now that we are all moving past that milestone, how do you feel society has done?

I for one have been surprised by the pace of change in some areas. Here for all of my readers is my summary for the past year and how it measures up against the needs of our planet.

Ocean Fleets Advance

The International Monetary Organization (IMO) actually surprised me this year. I’ve always considered the body as a more reactive international organisation, but this year has proven me wrong. The IMO has moved to enact standards with teeth, and though there are continuing debates about how best to incentivise the transition, the group as a whole has acknowledged that they will speed the transition up.

LNG is achieving more buy-in from carriers as the transitional fuel du jour. No doubt this is having a big impact on reducing voyage emissions. That said, infrastructure will continue to be a challenge for ocean carriers wanting to use new fuels. Ammonia fuelled ships for one have few locations where refuelling infrastructure is available. Major ports are investing though, Rotterdam with established bunkering and urong/Tuas (Singapore), Saldanha Bay (South Africa), Bell Bay (Australia), Japanese hubs, Omani ports well progressed with plans. Ocean ports continue to speed ahead with greening their processes. I visited one of the EV powered vessels in Singapore’s port. In a past article this year “Greening the Blue” one can see the amount of innovation taking place in the maritime sector’s small vessel arena. From electric passenger ferry services to chandelling services, EV’s are moving into replace fossil fuel burning ships. Drones are also still making inroads for offshore emissions free logistics. The innovation and ingenuity of the naval engineers of old seems to be in full force.

Air Industry Lagging Behind

There are of course small gains being made to physical aircraft to bring down fuel consumption here and there, but standard improvements which one should expect from a competitive industry is not making large enough gains. Real engineering advances with impact to replace fossil fuels are still missing.

The only real solution left is increasing the use of Sustainable Air Fuel (SAF). In 2025 efforts to use SAF finally kicked off. An SAF 2% blend mandate started in Europe this year. For Asia, only Singapore is committed to do a 1% SAF fuel blend for Singapore originating flights in 2026.

I am hoping that with base demand for SAF now established – real investment and therefore innovation in SAF production can get moving and bring down the costs. 2026 should show some indicators of what technologies and new methods are likely to come into competition for making SAF a more commercially viable fuel verses fossil fuels.

Land Transportation Evolution

EV transportation continues to dominate as the technology that will transform land transportation. What’s more, the battery storage costs for electricity has, as predicted, continued to fall.

2025 has indeed seen lower EV prices and increased competition in all vehicle types. As a result, EV sales have increased significantly. China manufacturers have become the leaders, bolstered by a huge and competitive home market. European, Japanese and Korean brands though have worked hard to catch up.

Charging infrastructure is still desperately needed though. Southeast Asia, Oceania and Japan all lack enough infrastructure to move markets for land transport into another level of transition. 2026 will hopefully see some significant moves to remedy this.

Green Power

The International Energy Agency (IEA) again shows continued rapid growth of renewable energy and an increased percentage of renewables being used in the energy mix. Wind and Solar power generation are now the undisputed low-cost energy source for the world’s energy hunger. The developing world is significantly taking up clean energy technology over traditional fossil fuel technology thanks to this fact. There are also major energy security advantages for clean energy. Of note this year – the noise for nuclear power to significantly start producing energy has gained a lot of attention. I have even seen a paper talking about nuclear applications for ocean carriers. I will expect nuclear power plants for national grids to gain some traction in our region with some real announcements in 2026.

Biodiversity Protection

The Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) puts our planet and our children’s future at risk by creating imbalances in the planets ecosystems. These imbalances in nature cause higher chances for zoonotic disease creation and exposure. When combined with international transport, the exposure and spreading of these diseases are amplified. The logistics industry is a required supplier for the illegal wildlife trade. So let us see how our industry is doing at spotting and reducing illegal wildlife trade. One report that attempted to sum up global performance in stopping illegal wildlife trade was done by the UNODC in May 2024. It concluded that illegal wildlife trafficking has continued with no significant progress in stopping it for 2 decades. More recent reports on illegal wildlife trade have shown some progress on law enforcement, but also an escalation in selling by smugglers via online channels.

2026 may show that some customs departments get better at profiling suspect imports and therefore increase confiscations of IWT. This year I have I seen reports of this taking place. I will expect more application of profiling automation (likely AI-enhanced) to have impacts in 2026.

Summing It Up

Overall, the progress towards the carbon free future continues to move forward. 2026 shows promise for increased transformation around the globe. This will likely be a good year to increase the pace of transition our region. So with high hopes for a success -> HAPPY GREEN NEW YEAR TO ALL!!