When shipowner Niels Stolt-Nielsen recently complained publicly that his Stolt Tankers cannot order new ships unless its customers pay higher rates for them, Jeroen van Heiningen saw a dilemma faced by ship operators that want to invest in greener.

How can ship operator invest in costlier fuels if their customers do not want to pay for it?

Van Heiningen is founder and managing director of 123Carbon, the Netherlands-based climate tech company that recently signed up with Norden to allow the Danish operator to sell carbon insetting tokens representing the emissions cuts on its voyages that utilise biofuels.