Ships sail under the radar when it comes to climate action
The mobile phone you hold that was made in China, the fancy Italian shoes you wear, the elegant cane chair manufactured in Indonesia that you’re sitting on, the Volvo car from Sweden that you drive – chances are these came on one of those mammoth cargo ships that sail across the world’s oceans everywhere and every day.
The shipping industry is a behemoth, transporting over 80% of the world’s traded goods. But it comes at an enormous price to the climate - producing around 3% of all human-caused planet-heating pollution. This is due to nearly all of the huge cargo vessels been powered by fossil fuels and experts now claim that when it comes to climate action, the industry has sailed under the radar, unregulated for long, compared to other economic sectors that often come under the microscope. Why is that?
Arguably, without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials, and the import/export of affordable food and manufactured goods, all at competitive freight costs would simply not be possible.
There are over 50,000 merchant ships trading internationally and shipping is the life blood of the global economy. Moving forward and as seaborne trade involving the movement of goods continues to expand; the number and size of ships will also change to be in step with the level of economic activity. Regulating the industry will be even more challenging.
Air pollution from shipping harms health. It also damages the environment through acidification and eutrophication. While some air pollutants are emitted far from land, around 70 % of the global emissions from ships are within 400 km of coastlines. Pollutants from ships can travel hundreds of kilometres in the atmosphere.
Cruise ships have often been described as ‘floating cities’, and as environmental groups have pointed out that they are just as if not more polluting. A passenger’s carbon footprint triples in size when taking a cruise and the emissions produced can contribute to serious health issues. On top of the pollution caused by their exhaust fumes, cruise ships have been caught discarding trash, fuel, and sewage directly into the ocean.
After a brief hiatus due to COVID-19, luxury cruises are back and a new study by the European Federation of Transport and Environment shows that cruise ship pollution at Europe’s busiest ports is back to pre-pandemic levels leaving many cities exposed to air pollution, despite the introduction of the UN shipping body’s sulphur cap in 2020.
Europe’s 218 cruise ships emitted more sulphur oxides (SOX) than 1 billion cars in 2022, or 4.4 times more than all the continent’s cars. The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in Europe. Looking at parent companies, the report, names the Carnival Corporation on top of the list with the 63 ships under its control emitting 43% more SOX than all of Europe’s cars in 2022.
Many cruise operators such as MSC Cruises have been investing in fossil gas (LNG) as an alternative to conventional marine fuels. As of now, more than 40% of cruise ships in the order books of global shipyards are slated to be delivered with dual-fuel LNG engines.
When running on LNG, these ships will cause less air pollution, but they are more damaging than fuel oils from a climate perspective due to methane slip from their four-stroke engines. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, over 80 times more climate warming than CO2. The cruise ship MS Iona, for example, emitted as much methane as 10,500 cows over a year.
An European Environment Agency (EEA) report points out that reducing fuel consumption is the best way to reduce emissions. Better fuel efficiency may be the easiest way to cut both air pollution and greenhouse gases. The EEA report recommends technical improvements such as different ship operating procedures. If ships reduced their speed by 10 %, known as ‘slow steaming’, it could cut energy demand by approximately 19 %, according to one study. Some shipping sectors are already switching to liquid natural gas (LNG), leading to an eradication of SO2 emissions, 80 % reduction of NOX and 20 % reduction of CO2.
Safer fuel, such as liquefied natural gas, is more expensive and operators have favoured using scrubbers, which have been called “emission cheat” systems. These scrubbers wash cheap fuel in order to meet environmental standards, but then discharge the pollutants collected directly into the ocean, destroying coral and marine life.
Source: External
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