Cruise ships are getting larger and emissions are growing says new report

There is a new report on Cruise ship emissions. Cruise ships are getting larger and more numerous. This is a problem for the environment, according to Transport NGO Transport and Environment.

They argue that the cruise ship sector:

• The world’s biggest cruise ships are now twice as big as they were in 2000
• At the current rate of growth, the biggest cruise ships in 2050 could become almost eight times bigger than the Titanic and carry nearly 11,000 passengers
• Twentyfold increase in the number of cruise ships from only 21 in 1970 to 515 today
• Cruise ship CO2 emissions were already nearly 20% higher in 2022 than in 2019 before the pandemic
• Cruise ships are currently exempt from fuel duties as well as most corporate and consumer taxes. A €50 tax on a typical cruise journey ticket would bring in €1.6 billion globally, €410 million of which would be raised in Europe.

Shipping emissions: Route optimisation using ocean currents and eddies may save 10% fuel use globally

An Australian scientist proposes freight and container ships optimise their routes based upon satellite data and a AI algorithm based upon the mapping of ocean currents and ocean eddies. 

This could save a freight route between Sydney and Wellington in New Zealand about 17 percent fuel use, with minimal deviation and change in delivery time. It could achieve these savings by tracking the flow of a large anticlockwise eddy in the Tasman Sea.

Projecting this globally: global shipping industry could potentially cut its total fuel usage by 10 per cent with his route optimisation algorithm, Estimated savings are projected to be nearly US$50 billion and 237 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

Shane Keating is an oceanographer and associate professor of applied mathematics at UNSW Sydney. He has developed an application and is offering it through his just-launched UNSW spin-off company named Ocean Intelligence. 

“It’s essentially Google Maps for the sea, which offers the most efficient route in real time based on the behaviour of ocean eddies,” Keating said in this article in the Saturday Paper.

Shipping levy on maritime emissions opposed by Australia at IMO conference

Shipping, in transporting around 90% of world trade, creates about 1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gasses, or nearly 3 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. It is about the same amount as Germany or Japan. 

Pacific Island nations including Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands, proposed the introduction of a $100 per tonne levy on maritime emissions in order to make cleaner fuels cost-competitive with the dirtier heavy fuel oil that is the industry standard. 

But Australia appears to have joined Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Brazil and other major states, to oppose this Pacific initiative for a levy on maritime emissions. Climate Home report identifies Latin American countries were also most vocal against the measure.

Fiji had proposed for the IMO, supported by a broad coalition of other Pacific nations, small island states and Least Developed countries:

• 37% GHG emissions reductions by 2030
• 96% by 2040 
• full decarbonization of shipping industry by 2050. 

A carbon levy and global fuel standards was also proposed as part of the basket of measures. 

Conference outcomes:

• failure to agree on absolute emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2040, 
• identified “indicative checkpoints” of at least 20%, striving for 30% emission reduction by 2030, 
• at least 70%, striving for 80% reduction by 2040. 
• aim to reach only net-zero “by or around, i.e., close to 2050”, depending on “national circumstances”.
• Green fuel mandates deferred.
• “pricing of greenhouse gas emissions” (a levy), deferred, earliest would be in 2027.

John Maggs, from the Clean Shipping Coalition, said:

 “There is no excuse for this wish and a prayer agreement. They knew what the science required, and that a 50% cut in emissions by 2030 was both possible and affordable. Instead the level of ambition agreed is far short of what is needed to be sure of keeping global heating below 1.5ºC and the language seemingly contrived to be vague and non-committal. The most vulnerable put up an admirable fight for high ambition and significantly improved the agreement but we are still a long way from the IMO treating the climate crisis with the urgency that it deserves and that the public demands.” Read more by Clean Shipping, 7 July, 2023, UN agrees on a new climate plan for global shipping, but not 1.5°C aligned.