Building the low-carbon ships of the future is such an expensive proposition that shipowners alone will be unable to finance them without charterers, financiers and even governments chipping in, a senior executive of Angelicoussis Group has said.

As part of that effort, shipping should seek a piece of the Green Deal, a recently announced European Union initiative to shape a carbon-neutral economy on the continent, Stavros Hatzigrigoris, managing director of the group's Maran Gas Maritime, said.