Shipping Scotland's Expertise
To The World:
Drive Economic Prosperity and Create Green Jobs Through Strategic Investment in International Maritime’s Energy Transition
Closing Scotland’s Innovation Support Gaps with
The Selected Stars Programme for:
International Climate Emergency Response
Global Market Opportunities for Scotland
International maritime accounts for 3% of overall global greenhouse gas emissions. For Scotland — which only contributes 0.15% of global emissions — this represents a significant opportunity to utilise its existing cross-sector expertise in renewables, energy, digital services and high value manufacturing to drive real action on international maritime’s energy transition. Companies like Smart Green Shipping (SGS) demonstrate that Scotland already has the innovation capacity and cross-sector collaboration needed to lead this shift.
However, without stronger support for scaling climate deep-tech, Scotland risks losing out on substantial global market opportunities, economic growth, and green jobs. High-potential companies may fail or relocate abroad, undermining Scotland’s climate leadership and forfeiting returns on early R&D investment.
SGS convened a high-level roundtable at Glasgow’s historic Malin Group Rotunda to address this issue. Chaired by maritime expert Patrick Carnie under the Chatham House Rule, it united high level Scottish government representatives, investors, cargo owners, manufacturers, engineers, tech entrepreneurs, and academics to pinpoint scale-up blockers for close-to-market technologies — and co-create pragmatic solutions that keep Scotland’s value-driven innovators thriving.
Aligned with the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy
This report, developed by SGS, draws on the roundtable discussions and further engagement with Scottish Government officials to recommend the Selected Stars Programme as a means of addressing the persistent shortfall in domestic scale-up capital and the resulting threat to the growth and retention of high-potential innovators.
The Programme aligns with the UK Treasury’s 2025 Entrepreneurship in the UK prospectus, which urges the Modern Industrial Strategy to better support ambitious founders to start, scale, and stay in the UK by strengthening the support ladder for high-growth innovators and optimising R&D incentives, procurement, tax levers, and public finance institutions.
The Selected Stars Programme’s recommendations help Scotland provide coordinated support for scaling climate and deeptech organisations — creating green jobs, driving economic growth, and establishing the country as a global leader on climate action.