Türkiye's Sea of Marmara ferry network could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 63% by 2050 by switching to a mix of hybrid and fully electric vessels, according to a new study from the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The transition would also avoid an estimated €492 million in cumulative health and environmental damage costs and support around 1,100 jobs a year through mid-century.

The study, commissioned by IMO's GreenVoyage2050 programme in partnership with Türkiye's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, assessed 67 Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferries carrying vehicles and passengers across 26 ports. It is one of the most granular decarbonisation assessments yet produced for a national ferry network, covering a system that moves roughly 25 million passengers and seven million vehicles each year.

The headline finding is blunt: battery-electric and hybrid propulsion are technically feasible across every Ro-Pax and Ro-Ro operation assessed in the Sea of Marmara. The study identified no major technical barriers to electrification. What stands between the fleet and large-scale deployment is charging infrastructure, upfront investment, coordinated energy planning and the domestic regulatory framework.

What does the optimum scenario look like?

The study modelled an optimum scenario combining hybrid and fully electric vessels to balance emissions reductions against cost. Under that mix, annual GHG emissions fall by around 63% by 2050 compared with business-as-usual diesel operations, while local air pollution also drops — the source of the €492 million in avoided health and environmental damage.

Full electrification pushes the numbers higher. Converting the entire fleet to battery-electric operations could cut GHG emissions by 84% by 2050. If Türkiye's electricity grid decarbonises in line with the country's 2053 net-zero target, the reduction could reach 95%.

For ferry operators and the municipalities that run them, the commercial equation hinges on capital costs against fuel savings and avoided damage costs. For ports, the binding constraint is grid capacity: high-voltage connections and shoreside charging are prerequisites, not afterthoughts. For Turkish shipyards, the upside is direct.

Why Türkiye's shipbuilding base matters

Ferry electrification would build on Türkiye's established shipbuilding expertise, boosting clean-technology industries and reducing the country's reliance on imported marine fuels — a meaningful macroeconomic shift for a nation that spends heavily on bunker imports.

Under the optimum hybrid-electric scenario, the required investment supports an average of roughly 1,100 jobs a year through to 2050. Vessel construction and retrofit work is expected to be concentrated in Turkish shipyards, giving the domestic marine industrial base a pipeline of orders measured in decades rather than years.

Which levers does the study recommend pulling?

To move from modelling to deployment, the study calls for a coordinated approach spanning government, municipalities, ports, ferry operators and the energy sector. Its priority actions include:

• expanding shoreside charging infrastructure and high-voltage grid connections at ports, backed by long-term port concessions that include charging infrastructure;
• securing low-carbon electricity supply at ports, including letting ports generate, use and sell locally produced clean power;
• introducing targeted financial incentives, mobilising blended finance and using emissions-based port fees to reward cleaner vessels;
• integrating electrification into national transport and energy planning;
• embedding environmental criteria into public ferry procurement; and
• supporting detailed feasibility studies and pilot projects that demonstrate commercial viability before wider deployment.

The emissions-based port fee recommendation will draw particular attention from operators: it aligns the Marmara discussion with the direction of travel in northern Europe, where ports increasingly price calls on environmental performance.

What happens next?

GreenVoyage2050 and Türkiye's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure now plan to advance a first pilot electrification project in the Sea of Marmara, designed to demonstrate the technical, environmental and commercial benefits quantified in the study.

The pilot carries weight beyond Türkiye. With IMO's global net-zero framework tightening emissions expectations across the fleet, a working demonstration of hybrid-electric Ro-Pax economics at scale — 67 vessels, 26 ports, 25 million passengers — would give ferry operators and financiers elsewhere a concrete template, and position Turkish yards as a build point for short-sea electrification in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.