Fact box
Shipping remains the more environmentally-friendly transportation model and despite accounting for 70% of the global goods transportation sector emits just 2% of the 26,583m tonnes of the CO2 annually derived from burning fossil fuels.
When taking all other greenhouse gasses into account, shipping’s contribution to global warming is just 1.3% of the total global emissions. This figure is likely to reduce even further with the introduction of new eco-friendly initiatives and technologies that are swiftly being adopted by the shipping and port industries.
With emissions intrinsically linked to fuel consumption and consequently speed, an all-round emissions-reducing solution is to decrease ship speed, which could also solve the problem of port congestion – itself a source of great pollution. From an economical viewpoint, the most economical speed for a 13,000 teu boxship is 24kts, while an 8,000 teu vessel runs best at 21kts.
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