Wärtsilä ranked first in UN challenge to fight climate change with big data

Wärtsilä Corporation, News, 23 September 2020 at 2.45 pm EEST

• Creation of global map of maritime CO2 emissions will support evidence-based policy making
• Wärtsilä wins the competition ahead of 16 world-ranked research institutes and universities
• Wärtsilä only multinational from dozens of candidates to be selected for participation

The technology group Wärtsilä has been awarded first prize in the United Nations’ AIS Big Data Hackathon, which took place in early September 2020. Altogether, teams from 17 organisations were selected to participate in the event, with Wärtsilä being the only multinational corporation to have its application for participation accepted. The remaining selected participants were teams from world renowned research institutes and leading universities.

The event was aimed at developing innovative and viable means for utilising big data to combat either the Covid-19 pandemic or climate change. Wärtsilä’s decision to tackle climate change came as a result of its long-standing commitment to reducing shipping’s carbon footprint, and its stated purpose in supporting sustainable societies with smart technology.

Enabling emissions policy to be based on factual evidence

The Wärtsilä team, named ‘Blue Carbon’, developed a model for attributing the CO2 emissions from vessels to the geographical location of the ships based on their AIS (Automatic Identification System) locations. The model supports the creation of a global map, identifying both the geographical concentrations and the build-up over time of CO2 emissions from shipping. This will enable environmental policy making to be based on factual evidence, allowing greater input from national and regional authorities to support the IMO’s regulatory efforts.

“This prestigious award demonstrates once again Wärtsilä’s strength in applying digital technology to deliver innovative solutions. It also emphasises our ability to utilise this strength to promote cleaner and more efficient marine operations. Combating climate change is both a challenge and an obligation for us as a global corporation, and we are proud to play our part,” commented Thomas Dewilde, Blue Carbon team member and Manager, Cyber Governance, Risk & Assurance, Wärtsilä.

The event was jointly organised by the United Nations Statistics Division, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the UN Global Pulse. The winning Wärtsilä team will attend the UN World Data Forum in Bern, Switzerland in 2021 to present their work and receive the award.

Image caption: Shipping lanes and areas of high emissions are revealed at a granular level

View full demo video: https://youtu.be/l_zHPGyx0m8

Media contacts for more information on this release:

Mr Andreas Bodmann
Head of Marketing
Wärtsilä Voyage
Tel: +49 1721649990
andreas.bodmann@wartsila.com

Ms Laura Quinton
Head of External Communications
Wärtsilä Voyage
laura.quinton@wartsila.com

All Wärtsilä releases are available at https://www.wartsila.com/media/news-releases and at http://news.cision.com/wartsila-corporation where also the images can be downloaded.

Wärtsilä Voyage in brief
Wärtsilä Voyage transforms how vessels perform their voyage by leveraging the latest digital technologies to deliver a step-change in safety, efficiency, reliability, and emissions. We are committed to creating a Smart Marine Ecosystem, whereby every vessel can connect to digital services that make voyaging safer and greener. With the broadest Smart Marine portfolio in the market, we are well positioned to lead the industry towards becoming digitally connected across the entire value chain and to be the first partner of choice when leveraging the latest digital technologies.
www.wartsila.com/voyage

Wärtsilä in brief
Wärtsilä is a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasising sustainable innovation, total efficiency and data analytics, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. In 2019, Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 5.2 billion with approximately 19,000 employees. The company has operations in over 200 locations in more than 80 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.
www.wartsila.com