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Title: Applying public information to make green shipping investment decisions

Authors: Jialin Yang¹, Kevin Cullinane², Ying-en Ge³

Addresses: ¹Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China,
²School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden,
³College of Transportation Engineering, Chang'an University, Xi'an, China

Abstract: Confronted with a surfeit of green shipping information and a variety of alternative fuels and technologies, the investment decisions facing shipping companies have become increasingly complex. Applying the novel granular fuzzy pay-off method (FPOM), this paper aims to provide a conceptually meaningful, understandable and easily applicable methodology for investment in green shipping. Based on public information, this paper conducts a case study relating to four popular kinds of ship fuels (namely diesel, LNG, methanol and hydrogen) to show how to use this method in financing a green ship. The results show that this methodology performs well under such a scenario. It indicates that, for the case study presented, LNG is an excellent transitional green fuel for use in the near future, regarding both financial benefit and emissions reduction. In addition, compared to the price of carbon, in the short-term fuel costs are more influential in a shipping company's green shipping investment decision process.

Keywords: green shipping finance; alternative fuel; carbon price; granular fuzzy pay-off method; FPOM; possibilistic mean; probabilistic mean.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2025.10069308

Received: 23 May 2024
Accepted: 01 Sep 2024
Published online: 04 Sep 2025 *