Upholding the green and low-carbon development of the maritime industry is not only imperative for the control of the global climate change, but also promotes the industrial transformation and upgrading. Since the United Nation launched the action on Climate Change, the international maritime community has been seeking a fundamental solution to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction through the combination of technology, operation and market. With the continuous enriching of the topics on the marine pollution prevention, the application of new technologies driven by the legislation is promoting the gradually developed “green solutions” for whole-ship solutions. The rapid changes in product concepts and methods are also increasingly affecting the whole process of the ship design, manufacturing and operation, extending to the supply chain management in the perspective of the full life cycle of carbon footprint. The current study aims to analyze and summarize the key points of GHG emission reduction in maritime legislation, industry technological innovation, important hot issues and several major factors affecting the future development of the industry in the past decade. Focusing on the key issue of alternative marine fuel transition, the directions, key points and strategies of the industry to adapt to green and low-carbon are proposed from the perspective of industrial competition and technological development.