Toward Green Shipping: What Hinders Shipping Companies From Switching to Green Fuels?

ABSTRACT With the rapid green transformation of the shipping industry, green fuels are considered a crucial way to achieve shipping decarbonization. However, despite continuous technological advancements, shipping companies remain cautious about fuel transitions in their actual operations. Meanwhile, existing research focuses primarily on the technical feasibility of green fuels, while lacking specific analysis of the key obstacles faced by shipping companies in actual decision‐making. Therefore, analysis of the key factors hindering shipping companies from switching to green fuels is essential for the shipping industry. Based on this, this paper uses the South Korean shipping industry as a case study, constructing an evaluation framework encompassing five dimensions: environmental sustainability, social responsibility, regulatory governance, economic benefits, and technological support. Methodologically, this paper employs the Best‐Worst Method to quantify the importance of each evaluation factor. The study obtained a sample of 16 experts with extensive experience to identify and rank the key factors. The results show that economic factors dominate fuel transition decisions, with initial investment costs and fuel costs being the most significant obstacles. Furthermore, fuel supply stability, technological maturity, and infrastructure conditions also significantly impact shipping companies' green fuel transition decisions, while policy factors have a relatively limited direct influence on corporate decisions at the current stage. The findings not only contribute to a deeper understanding of energy transition decision‐making in the shipping industry but also provide important insights for policymakers to design targeted policy tools to reduce the concerns and hesitations companies face during the green fuel transition.