Maritime shipping emissions decline

Average carbon dioxide emissions from ocean container transport fell 1 percent from 2016 to 2017.    Carbon dioxide emissions from maritime cargo shipping continued to decline last year, according to a recent report from nonprofit organization BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group.
   The Clean Cargo Emissions Factors 2018 Report, which took into account emissions data from 22 ocean container carriers on more than 3,200 ships representing around 85 percent of global ocean container capacity, found average CO2 emissions per container per kilometer fell 1 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year.
   “While changes in carrier representation or global trade conditions likely explain a portion of these results, the continued performance improvement is also attributable to carrier fleet efficiency and data quality, both of which have direct benefits for shipping customers,” Clean Cargo said in its report.
   Since 2009, average CO2 emissions from container shipping have fallen 37.1 percent, according to Clean Cargo.
   In the latest report, the group also began tracking the use of low-sulphur and lower-carbon fuels for the first time, finding 5 percent of fuel used by the global container fleet in 2017 was light fuel oil (LFO), while liquefied natural gas (LNG) also was used by “some vessels on the intra-Northern Europe trade lane.”
   “These data show that the container shipping industry continues to make progress that is essential to reaching clean air and climate goals,” said Clean Cargo. “However, significantly more financing and innovation will be needed for the shipping industry to remain on track to meet the ambitious climate goals recently announced in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) climate strategy.”
   The IMO is imposing much stricter limits on sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions from ship exhaust that take effect on Jan. 1, 2020, and in April adopted a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 50 percent of 2008 levels by 2050 in an effort to combat global warming.