Tag: CO2

For the first time, all shipping companies calling at EU ports will have to measure and publicly report carbon emissions under a law approved by an overwhelming majority of the EU Parliament's Environment Committee. Sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) says that the law is weak - it only monitors fuel consumption instead of directly reducing it, and only covers CO2 and not air pollutants like SO2 or NOx - but it can still trigger fuel savings indirectly. The EU law will require ship operators to publicly report three metrics to measure the environmental performance of ships: the theoretical energy performance of the ship known as the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI); its real-world fuel consumption; and its energy efficiency, that is, the amount of fuel divided by the amount of cargo. The more cargo a ship can carry using the same amount of fuel, the more efficient and cheaper to run it is. The publication of ships' real energy efficiency will provide shipping users in Europe and worldwide with transparent data to identify the most efficient ships and practices. This can trigger a virtuous cycle of increased competition among operators, which will enable fuel savings and emissions reductions. ...

BIMCO has repeatedly voiced concerns over the European Commission's proposal for regulating CO2 emissions from ships, which requires reporting of information about cargo that is commercially sensitive. Informally agreed last week, the EC Regulation on monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) creates a unilateral European MRV system that will become operational as of 2018, applying to ships above 5,000 GT arriving and/or departing from EU ports. The system is claimed to be neutral regarding flag and ownership BIMCO believes that the EU MRV system will create additional red tape for shipping without any positive impact on the environment and may well negatively affect the prospect of an international agreement on the issue in IMO. Apart from reporting data on CO2 emissions and distance sailed, the Regulation will require ships to report cargo-related information, which BIMCO believes will create problems related to data reliability, confidentiality, reporting responsibilities and obligations. Lars Robert Pedersen, Deputy Secretary General at BIMCO, said: "We view the EU MRV Regulation as unhelpful in terms of reaching an international agreement on the crucial issue of CO2 monitoring.   "We also find it hard to see how the cargo data required from ships will be of value as it relates ...

As the Earth warmed coming out of the last ice age, the rate of plankton production off the Pacific Northwest coast decreased, a new study has found, though the amount of organic material making its way to the deep ocean actually increased. This suggests that during future climate warming, the ocean may be more efficient than previously thought at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – at least in some regions – but raises new concerns about impacts on marine life. Results of the study are being published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide like a sponge; scientists say that about one-third of all CO2   emitted historically by burning fossil fuels is now in the ocean. “This is a good news/bad news situation,” said Alan Mix, an Oregon State University oceanographer and co-author on the study. “It helps to slow the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere, but it makes the ocean more acidic.” A major uncertainty has been how life in the ocean will respond to increasing CO2   and global warming. Growth of phytoplankton (microscopic plants such as diatoms) near the sea surface converts carbon dioxide into organic matter. When ...

The global shipping industry, which transports around 90% of world trade, only produced about 2.2% of the world's total Green House Gas emissions during 2012 compared to 2.8% in 2007. Shipping's total emissions have reduced by more than 10% during the same period. In advance of the United Nations Climate Conference in Lima (1-12 December), the global trade association for ship operators - the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) - says that the industry is on track to reduce its emissions by more than 20% by 2020 (compared to 2005) with further reductions going forward. This and other information about the impressive progress which the shipping industry is making to reduce its CO2 emissions is set out in a special brochure prepared for the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference (COP 20). This can be found on the global trade association's website. The shipping industry is the only industrial sector which is already covered by a binding global agreement to reduce its CO2 emissions, through technical and operational measures agreed - with full industry support - by its global regulator, the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO). ICS explains that the IMO is now developing additional measures to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping ...

International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – is disappointed and concerned that the European Union is about to pre-empt negotiations taking place at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the collection of data on CO2 emissions from ships, by unilaterally adopting a regional Regulation which will apply to non-EU flag vessels, as well as ships registered in the EU. The Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the European Commission are understood to have reached agreement on the text of an EU Regulation on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of ships’ CO2 emissions, for formal adoption early next year.The industry fully supports the development of a global data collection system by IMO but the imminent adoption of a regional EU regime, which may not be compatible with whatever is agreed at IMO, will certainly complicate and perhaps jeopardise these delicate negotiations. Agreement at IMO will require the support of non-EU nations with which the vast majority of the global fleet is registered, including developing countries such as China and India for whom additional CO2 regulations are a politically sensitive issue. ICS fully appreciates that the draft EU Regulation, which will not be fully implemented until 2018, contains text to the ...

The Permanent Representatives Committee confirmed an agreement with the European Parliament on new EU-wide rules for monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2 emissions from ships. The agreement was reached in an informal trilogue on 18 November. International maritime shipping is the only means of transportation not included in the EU's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Monitoring of CO2 emissions from ships is the first step of a staged approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this sector as well. The new regulation will improve information about CO2 emissions relating to the consumption of fuels, transport work and energy efficiency of ships, which make it possible to analyse emission trends and assess ships' performances. Gian Luca Galletti, Italian Minister for the Environment: "The agreement reached between the Parliament and the Council has a great political value as well as technical: with the new regulation establishing a mechanism for monitoring, reporting and verification of maritime emissions, Europe immediately gives a follow-up with a concrete decision to the commitments of the Climate-Energy Framework 2030. This agreement enables us to play an influential role in the negotiations within the International Maritime Organisation, with a view to finding ambitious solutions that combine environment protection ...

EU co-legislators reached an informal agreement last week on the Commission proposal for a Regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions of maritime transport. The agreement paves the way for a European MRV system that will become operational as of 2018, applying to ships above 5000 GT arriving and departing from EU ports, regardless of their flag and ownership. The Regulation is meant to be a stepping stone towards a global MRV instrument, which is currently being discussed at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Apart from data on CO2 emissions and distance sailed, the negotiators agreed that the Regulation will also require ships to report cargo-related information. “Whilst the inclusion of cargo-related information allows the measurement of energy efficiency of vessels, there are concerns regarding data reliability and confidentiality as well as reporting responsibilities and obligations”, said ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven in an initial reaction and continued by saying that “This explains why IMO approaches the issue with great care.”   “As ECSA we would have preferred the inclusion of cargo-related data to have simply been postponed until an agreement was reached at IMO. We do however acknowledge that the negotiators took some of our ...

ClassNK has granted Approval in Principle (AIP) to a new H2/CO2 FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) to a new design developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Chiyoda Corporation. FPSO are commonly used in the offshore oil and gas industry process and store crude oil and liquefied gas from offshore wells until it can be transported via pipelines to shore or via ship-to-ship transfer. This new concept H2/CO2 FPSO, however, uses steam reforming and shift conversion to extract hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from the associated gas produced as a byproduct of oil well production. Due to its overwhelming environmentally-friendliness and excellent availability, there is growing interest in the use of hydrogen as a fuel, and research is ongoing around the world. The storage and transport of hydrogen continues to present a number of difficult technical challenges for industrial and commercial use. In order to address these challenges, the H2/CO2 FPSO uses a new organic chemical hydride method to convert hydrogen into highly stable methylcyclohexane (MCH), which can be stored in liquid form at an ambient temperature and pressure. As MCH can be transported in standard chemical tankers, converting hydrogen into MCH not only reduces the risks and ...

Hamburg Süd has achieved its environmental goal of reducing the CO2e emissions of its fleet by 26 percent by the year 2020, compared to 2009, well ahead of schedule. This is due to a number of measures, including investments in the energy efficiency of the shipping company’s own ships, the expansion of the average ship size within the newbuilding programme, the chartering of energy-efficient ships and the further optimisation of vessel deployment. All in all, these activities together have led to a significantly more positive effect on CO2e emissions reduction than originally forecasted. The newly formulated CO2e goal specifies a reduction of emissions by 45 percent between 2009 and 2020 and encompasses the shipping company’s own and chartered container ships per unit of transport performance (TEUxkm). The CO2e unit of measurement, carbon dioxide equivalent, not only considers carbon dioxide but also other emissions produced during the combustion process (e.g. methane gas) in terms of their impact on the climate. More detailed information, particularly regarding the environmental balance sheet of the entire shipping group, can be found on Hamburg Süd’s newly restructured and redesigned website under the area. Source and Image Credit: Hamburg Sud GroupIn the onset, I was explicit with ...

CEO of the Maersk Group Nils Smedegaard Andersen spoke at the BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) Conference in New York and outlined Maersk Line’s new CO2 target.   Highlighting the importance of an industry-wide effort to reduce CO2 emissions, Mr Andersen announced Maersk Line’s new Carbon Emissions target, reinforcing Maersk Line’s commitment to be ‘part of the solution’. "Over the past years, we have driven significant energy efficiency improvements across our fleet, pioneering initiatives from speed optimisation and technical upgrades to designing new and more energy efficient ships, the Triple-E’s" said Mr Andersen. Since 2007 Maersk Line has cut the average CO2 impact of a container by more than a third. Simultaneously, Maersk Line’s focus on energy efficiency has made the company significantly more cost competitive thereby decoupling growth from resource consumption Maersk Line has set itself a bold new target of reducing CO2 emissions per container moved by 60%, relatively to 2007 standards. This is up from a previous 40% mark set last year. This means that in 2020 Maersk Line will have increased our volumes by 80% while cutting our absolute emissions by 15 million tons. In this way Maersk Line can continue to grow our business and help increase ...