IAPH launched a dedicated white paper on the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), citing testimonials from world ports on how to use the index to facilitate vessel emissions reductions.
Subtitled ‘Setting the standard for maritime environmental performance’, it is aimed at providing a clear introduction to newcomers interested in joining this long-running scheme. ESI is used by 60 global ports and other maritime administrations for providing incentives to owners of over 6,600 ships to perform better in reducing air emissions than required by the current emission standards of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
What is ESI?
The Environmental Ship Index (ESI) is a voluntary system designed and used by ports to incentivize ship owners to improve the environmental performance of their vessels. Applicable to any vessel exceeding current IMO emission standards, ESI has become the established global standard for ports to incentivise the ongoing improvement of shipping’s environmental performance. It has also been recognised by the IMO as the standard basis for port incentives for low- and zero-carbon ships. The aim of ESI is to achieve a genuine reduction in emissions of NOx, SOx and particulates, as well as CO2 in the longer term, by promoting behavioural change among ship owners/operators and ports.
This includes half of the world’s container fleet and a multitude of other vessel types. ESI, which is a voluntary system, has become the established global standard for ports to incentivise the ongoing improvement of shipping’s environmental performance and has also been recognised by the IMO as the standard scheme offering port incentives for low- and zero-carbon ships in a recently-signed MOU with IAPH.
The new white paper explores the fundamentals of ESI and underlines its strengths via case studies and testimonials from ports across the globe, a major shipowner and citations from major transportation studies. The white paper explores upcoming enhancements to ESI, including a fully-integrated calculation of greenhouse gas emissions, rewards for zero-emissions techniques, and a new at-berth module for the evaluation of the emissions performance of a given port call. Ports are facing increasing demands from their community stakeholders to identify, quantify and demonstrably reduce vessel emissions in and around their premises, especially when they are located inside port cities. ESI will have a critical role to play in doing just that.
The future of ESI
ESI was founded on the principle of encouraging ship owners to exceed the highest maritime environmental regulations of the moment. As the shipping industry strives to decarbonise, setting ever more ambitious targets on the way to net-zero in 2050, ESI is evolving to help owner-operators to exceed the latest standards. The driver for this change is ESI 2.0, the most significant and far-reaching revision of ESI’s formulae since the launch of the scheme.
