Shipping carbon emissions come under scrutiny

Jan. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Shipping has long being one of the world’s 'invisible industries’ – but its carbon emissions are now bringing it under the glare of critical scrutiny.

Relatively speaking, ships are climate change friendly. But, over the last 40 years, technological advances and economies of scale have cut energy consumption dramatically. Today’s articulated lorry pumps out about 50 grams of CO2 per kilometre for each tonne of goods carried. Aeroplanes account for at least 10 times as much. Nearly 80% of global trade by volume is transported by sea, with some 53,000 vessels clocking up over 50 trillion tkm a year.

The industry’s relentless growth looks set to continue as long as the global population keeps increasing, as well as living standards around the world. By 2040, all other things being equal, the carbon footprint of shipping could easily double, and the shipping industry, so long an 'invisible industry’ operating far beyond most people’s horizons, is now coming under intense scrutiny.

It can take a decade to get a new ship off the drawing board and down the slipway, and that vessel may then be in service for as long as 35 years. That means that many of the ships that will be sailing even in 2040 have already been built. And they will incorporate the technology – and the sustainability attitude – of five to 10 years ago. Therefore, there is no single, revolutionary new idea that is going to turn the shipping industry green. Instead, insiders are looking to a mix of technical tweaks and 'smarter steaming’ to accumulate enough modest energy savings to add up to something really substantial.

That’s the strategy of the huge Danish shipping line Maersk, which plans to cut its carbon emissions by 25% by 2020, mostly by retrofitting its current fleet and by using it more energy efficiently. Maersk reports that since 2007 ‘slow steaming’ alone has cut its energy consumption per container by 12.5%. Slow steaming saves money, saves carbon, and also gives clients a more reliable date of arrival. Cost-cutting will be a major driver of change.

Additionally, pressure from carbon-conscious shippers, such as Walmart, Ikea, Tesco and Volkswagen, looking at greening their supply chain, will also help in the carbon emissions reduction. Sam Kimmins, co-ordinator of Forum for the Future’s Sustainable Shipping Initiative said: "They are increasingly asking the shipping industry to declare what it is producing in terms of carbon. It’s the big branded retailers, and some of the big bulk importers".

This would require environmental performance data to be freely available for each and every ship on the ocean. The Carbon War Room is working with other organisations to develop a free-access website that will benchmark and index the world’s sea-going vessels individually.

But, the industry’s notorious 'split incentive’ problem is the fact that, in general, ship owners have little interest in paying the upfront costs of making their fleets more energy efficient. This is clearly a pressing need for either some kind of cap-and-trade scheme or a carbon levy on fuel. Some of the huge sums of money this would potentially raise should be ploughed into publicly-funded R&D, to accelerate technical innovation and make it available right across the industry. The rest could go into a climate change mitigation fund for the developing world.

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