International Maritime Organization(IMO) is gradually strengthening environmental regulations on various air pollutants emitted from ships, such as nitrogen oxide(NOx), sulfur oxide(SOx), greenhouse gases(GHG). Domestically, the Korean government enacted the 「Act on the Promotion of Development and Distribution of Eco-Friendly Ships」in 2020 to enhance economic vitality through intensive investment in eco-friendly ships and expansion of sales channels. Accordingly, policies for the development and distribution of eco-friendly ships have been established and implemented. Despite these efforts, the development and dissemination of eco-friendly ship technology has not made great progress, and the shipping and shipbuilding industries are facing difficulties in securing eco-friendly ships that can respond to international environmental regulations.
In order to analyze the relative importance between major policies in the 'first Mater Plan for Development and Distribution of Eco-Friendly Ships', which is being promoted by the government in accordance with the 「Act on Eco-friendly Vessels」, a survey was conducted targeting the expert group, and Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used for analysis.
As a result of the AHP analysis, in the first-tier evaluation criteria, "urgency of government support(0.343)" was the highest in importance, "industrial competitiveness enhancement(0.239)", "contribution to marine environment improvement (0.217)", and "contribution to global regulatory response (0.198)" )" followed. 'Securing world-leading technology (0.291)' was the highest in the 2nd tier major policies, "Establishment of a test base for diffusion of new technologies (0.185)", "Promotion of Korean-style demonstration projects (0.180)", and "Ecosystem leading the eco-friendly ship market" Creation (0.116)", "expansion of fuel supply infrastructure (0.113)", and "promotion of supply of eco-friendly ships (0.112)" were in the order. Through this, it was confirmed that securing technologies for low-carbon and non-carbon ships should be given priority in order to reduce greenhouse gas by 70% by 2030.
The current status of the IMO's global marine environment regulation, which is becoming more stringent, was reviewed, and the economic impact and market of eco-friendly regulations were predicted. Accordingly, the eco-friendly ship policies of major countries were identified. In addition, various eco-friendly ship policies promoted in Korea were analyzed, and a questionnaire was formed based on the major policies in the 'First Basic Plan for Eco-Friendly Ship Development and Distribution' currently being promoted, and then AHP analysis was conducted to determine specific policy improvement directions wanted to present.
First, eco-friendly ships should be selected as national essential strategic technologies to focus the nation's R&D capabilities. In order for that, considering that it takes a long time to develop and commercialize carbon-free fuel, it is necessary to develop a mixed fuel propulsion technology that can serve as a bridge and develop various energy efficiency improvement technologies. Next, existing LNG/electric/hybrid propulsion technologies should be upgraded, and finally, equipment technology development and demonstration for hydrogen and ammonia fuel-powered ships to secure carbon-free ships should be carried out.
Second, governance must be established to systematically respond to international eco-friendly regulations. It is necessary to form a government-wide task force to link big data possessed by the shipping and shipbuilding industries with policies for fostering related industries, and to conduct research in the form of private, public, academic, and research clusters to develop new eco-friendly fuel sources. It is judged that a specialized consulting institution is needed to expand the government's dedicated organization for eco-friendly ship policy and support ship energy efficiency evaluation.
It is expected that the results of this study can be used as data for setting a direction that can improve the efficiency of policy execution such as preemptive response to international marine environmental regulations, protection of our shipping and shipbuilding industries, and budget allocation and policy development in terms of fostering new industries.