IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i8p3220-d346282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards the IMO’s GHG Goals: A Critical Overview of the Perspectives and Challenges of the Main Options for Decarbonizing International Shipping

Author

Listed:
  • Patrizia Serra

    (DICAAR—Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, Italy)

  • Gianfranco Fancello

    (DICAAR—Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, via Marengo 2, 09123 Cagliari, Italy)

Abstract

The Initial Strategy on reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2018 commits the IMO to reduce total GHG emissions of shipping by at least 50% by 2050. Though the direction of the Strategy is clear, the path to implementation remains uncertain. The ambitious IMO’s target calls for widespread uptake of lower and zero-carbon fuels, in addition to other energy efficiency measures, including operational and market ones. Using a triangulated research approach, this paper provides a critical overview of the main measures and initiatives the shipping industry can adopt to try to cope with the new IMO’s requirements. The pros and cons of the most popular emission reduction options are investigated along with the main challenges and barriers to implementation and the potential facilitators that could foster a wider application. The framework that is outlined is complex and not without controversy. Research can play a key role as a facilitator of shipping’s decarbonization by providing its contribution to overcoming the existing controversies on various decarbonization options and by developing a wealth of knowledge that can encourage the implementation of low-carbon initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrizia Serra & Gianfranco Fancello, 2020. "Towards the IMO’s GHG Goals: A Critical Overview of the Perspectives and Challenges of the Main Options for Decarbonizing International Shipping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-32, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3220-:d:346282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3220/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3220/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scheelhaase, Janina & Maertens, Sven & Grimme, Wolfgang & Jung, Martin, 2018. "EU ETS versus CORSIA – A critical assessment of two approaches to limit air transport's CO2 emissions by market-based measures," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 55-62.
    2. O. Schmidt & A. Hawkes & A. Gambhir & I. Staffell, 2017. "The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(8), pages 1-8, August.
    3. Shi, Yubing, 2016. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping: Is it time to consider market-based measures?," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 123-134.
    4. S. Papaefthimiou & I. Sitzimis & K. Andriosopoulos, 2017. "A methodological approach for environmental characterization of ports," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 81-93, January.
    5. Jingbo Yin & Lixian Fan & Zhongzhen Yang & Kevin X. Li, 2014. "Slow steaming of liner trade: its economic and environmental impacts," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 149-158, March.
    6. Ronald A. Halim & Lucie Kirstein & Olaf Merk & Luis M. Martinez, 2018. "Decarbonization Pathways for International Maritime Transport: A Model-Based Policy Impact Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-30, June.
    7. Jong-Kyun Woo & Daniel Seong-Hyeok Moon, 2014. "The effects of slow steaming on the environmental performance in liner shipping," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 176-191, March.
    8. Harilaos N. Psaraftis, 2019. "Decarbonization of maritime transport: to be or not to be?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 21(3), pages 353-371, September.
    9. K Fagerholt & G Laporte & I Norstad, 2010. "Reducing fuel emissions by optimizing speed on shipping routes," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(3), pages 523-529, March.
    10. Christiansen, Marielle & Fagerholt, Kjetil & Nygreen, Bjørn & Ronen, David, 2013. "Ship routing and scheduling in the new millennium," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(3), pages 467-483.
    11. Paul Tae-Woo Lee & Oh Kyoung Kwon & Xiao Ruan, 2019. "Sustainability Challenges in Maritime Transport and Logistics Industry and Its Way Ahead," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-9, March.
    12. Lindstad, Haakon & Asbjørnslett, Bjørn E. & Strømman, Anders H., 2011. "Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and cost by shipping at lower speeds," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3456-3464, June.
    13. J Fernando Alvarez & Tore Longva & Erna S Engebrethsen, 2010. "A methodology to assess vessel berthing and speed optimization policies," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 12(4), pages 327-346, December.
    14. Hu, Hongtao & Yuan, Jun & Nian, Victor, 2019. "Development of a multi-objective decision-making method to evaluate correlated decarbonization measures under uncertainty – The example of international shipping," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 148-157.
    15. Hermeling, Claudia & Klement, Jan Henrik & Koesler, Simon & Köhler, Jonathan & Klement, Dorothee, 2015. "Sailing into a dilemma," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 34-53.
    16. Kjetil Fagerholt & Trond A. V. Johnsen & Haakon Lindstad, 2009. "Fleet deployment in liner shipping: a case study," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(5), pages 397-409, October.
    17. Harilaos N. Psaraftis, 2016. "Green Maritime Transportation: Market Based Measures," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Harilaos N. Psaraftis (ed.), Green Transportation Logistics, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 267-297, Springer.
    18. Magdalena Kunicka & Wojciech Litwin, 2019. "Energy Demand of Short-Range Inland Ferry with Series Hybrid Propulsion Depending on the Navigation Strategy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-13, September.
    19. Jeong, Byongug & Oguz, Elif & Wang, Haibin & Zhou, Peilin, 2018. "Multi-criteria decision-making for marine propulsion: Hybrid, diesel electric and diesel mechanical systems from cost-environment-risk perspectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1065-1081.
    20. Gianfranco FANCELLO & Patrizia SERRA & Simona MANCINI, 2019. "A Network Design Optimization Problem For Ro-Ro Freight Transport In The Tyrrhenian Area," Transport Problems, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Transport, vol. 14(4), pages 63-76, December.
    21. Sung-Ho Shin & Oh Kyoung Kwon & Xiao Ruan & Prem Chhetri & Paul Tae-Woo Lee & Shahrooz Shahparvari, 2018. "Analyzing Sustainability Literature in Maritime Studies with Text Mining," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, September.
    22. Elias G. Carayannis & David F.J. Campbell, 2010. "Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other? : A Proposed Framework for a Trans-disciplinary Analysis of Sustainable Dev," International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD), IGI Global, vol. 1(1), pages 41-69, January.
    23. Elizabeth Lindstad & Henning Borgen & Gunnar S. Eskeland & Christopher Paalson & Harilaos Psaraftis & Osman Turan, 2019. "The Need to Amend IMO’s EEDI to Include a Threshold for Performance in Waves (Realistic Sea Conditions) to Achieve the Desired GHG Reductions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, July.
    24. Pierre Franc & Lisa Sutto, 2014. "Impact analysis on shipping lines and European ports of a cap- and-trade system on CO2 emissions in maritime transport," Post-Print halshs-01366279, HAL.
    25. Michele Acciaro & Thierry Vanelslander & Christa Sys & Claudio Ferrari & Athena Roumboutsos & Genevieve Giuliano & Jasmine Siu Lee Lam & Seraphim Kapros, 2014. "Environmental sustainability in seaports: a framework for successful innovation," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 480-500, September.
    26. Zis, Thalis P.V., 2019. "Prospects of cold ironing as an emissions reduction option," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 82-95.
    27. Thalis Zis & Harilaos. N. Psaraftis, 2019. "Operational measures to mitigate and reverse the potential modal shifts due to environmental legislation," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 117-132, January.
    28. Mansouri, S. Afshin & Lee, Habin & Aluko, Oluwakayode, 2015. "Multi-objective decision support to enhance environmental sustainability in maritime shipping: A review and future directions," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 3-18.
    29. Moreno-Gutiérrez, Juan & Calderay, Fátima & Saborido, Nieves & Boile, Maria & Rodríguez Valero, Rafael & Durán-Grados, Vanesa, 2015. "Methodologies for estimating shipping emissions and energy consumption: A comparative analysis of current methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 603-616.
    30. Hermeling, Claudia & Klement, Jan Henrik & Koesler, Simon & Köhler, Jonathan & Klement, Dorothee, 2014. "Sailing into a dilemma: An economic and legal analysis of an EU trading scheme for maritime emissions," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-021, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    31. Yuzhe Zhao & Yujun Fan & Jingmiao Zhou & Haibo Kuang, 2019. "Bi-Objective Optimization of Vessel Speed and Route for Sustainable Coastal Shipping under the Regulations of Emission Control Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-24, November.
    32. Siyuan Wang & Theo Notteboom, 2014. "The Adoption of Liquefied Natural Gas as a Ship Fuel: A Systematic Review of Perspectives and Challenges," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 749-774, November.
    33. Nicolini, Marcella & Tavoni, Massimo, 2017. "Are renewable energy subsidies effective? Evidence from Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 412-423.
    34. Rehmatulla, Nishatabbas & Smith, Tristan, 2015. "Barriers to energy efficiency in shipping: A triangulated approach to investigate the principal agent problem," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 44-57.
    35. Notteboom, Theo E. & Vernimmen, Bert, 2009. "The effect of high fuel costs on liner service configuration in container shipping," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 325-337.
    36. Alice Bows-Larkin, 2015. "All adrift: aviation, shipping, and climate change policy," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 681-702, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suneet Singh & Ashish Dwivedi & Saurabh Pratap, 2023. "Sustainable Maritime Freight Transportation: Current Status and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Ulla Tapaninen & Riina Palu, 2022. "Recovery of ro-pax ferry traffic from covid-19 under tightening environmental regulations: case Helsinki-Tallinn," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Monica Grosso & Fabio Luis Marques dos Santos & Konstantinos Gkoumas & Marcin Stępniak & Ferenc Pekár, 2021. "The Role of Research and Innovation in Europe for the Decarbonisation of Waterborne Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Daniel P. Carlisle & Pamela M. Feetham & Malcolm J. Wright & Damon A. H. Teagle, 2024. "Public response to decarbonisation through alternative shipping fuels," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 20737-20756, August.
    5. Sandro Vidas & Marijan Cukrov & Valentina Šutalo & Smiljko Rudan, 2021. "CO 2 Emissions Reduction Measures for RO-RO Vessels on Non-Profitable Coastal Liner Passenger Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Bilgili, Levent, 2023. "A systematic review on the acceptance of alternative marine fuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    7. Dimitrios Parris & Konstantinos Spinthiropoulos & Konstantina Ragazou & Anna Giovou & Constantinos Tsanaktsidis, 2024. "Methanol, a Plugin Marine Fuel for Green House Gas Reduction—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-28, January.
    8. Mohideen, Mohamedazeem M. & Subramanian, Balachandran & Sun, Jingyi & Ge, Jing & Guo, Han & Radhamani, Adiyodi Veettil & Ramakrishna, Seeram & Liu, Yong, 2023. "Techno-economic analysis of different shades of renewable and non-renewable energy-based hydrogen for fuel cell electric vehicles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Li, Yuwan & Yuen, Kum Fai & Zhou, Yusheng, 2024. "Risk assessment of achieving greenhouse gas emission reduction target in the maritime industry," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 29-46.
    10. Tianhao Shao & Weijie Du & Yun Ye & Haoqing Li & Jingxin Dong & Guiyun Liu & Pengjun Zheng, 2024. "A Novel Virtual Arrival Optimization Method for Traffic Organization Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Vinicius Andrade dos Santos & Patrícia Pereira da Silva & Luís Manuel Ventura Serrano, 2022. "The Maritime Sector and Its Problematic Decarbonization: A Systematic Review of the Contribution of Alternative Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-30, May.
    12. Ramazan Ozkan Yildiz & Elif Koc & Oguzhan Der & Murat Aymelek, 2024. "Unveiling the Contemporary Research Direction and Current Business Management Strategies for Port Decarbonization Through a Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-38, December.
    13. Mundaca, Gabriela & Strand, Jon & Young, Ian R., 2021. "Carbon pricing of international transport fuels: Impacts on carbon emissions and trade activity," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    14. Orestis Schinas & Niklas Bergmann, 2021. "The Short-Term Cost of Greening the Global Fleet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-32, August.
    15. Önder Çağlayan & Murat Aymelek, 2024. "An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Support Model for Sustainable Ship Queuing Policy Application via Vessel Traffic Service (VTS)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-33, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mansouri, S. Afshin & Lee, Habin & Aluko, Oluwakayode, 2015. "Multi-objective decision support to enhance environmental sustainability in maritime shipping: A review and future directions," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 3-18.
    2. Xing, Hui & Spence, Stephen & Chen, Hua, 2020. "A comprehensive review on countermeasures for CO2 emissions from ships," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Gu, Yewen & Wallace, Stein W. & Wang, Xin, 2018. "Can an Emission Trading Scheme really reduce CO2 emissions in the short term? Evidence from a maritime fleet composition and deployment model," Discussion Papers 2018/10, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    4. I. Mallidis & S. Despoudi & R. Dekker & E. Iakovou & D. Vlachos, 2020. "The impact of sulphur limit fuel regulations on maritime supply chain network design," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 294(1), pages 677-695, November.
    5. Sheng, Dian & Li, Zhi-Chun & Fu, Xiaowen & Gillen, David, 2017. "Modeling the effects of unilateral and uniform emission regulations under shipping company and port competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 99-114.
    6. Shuaian Wang & Dan Zhuge & Lu Zhen & Chung-Yee Lee, 2021. "Liner Shipping Service Planning Under Sulfur Emission Regulations," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 491-509, March.
    7. Peter Andersson & Pernilla Ivehammar, 2017. "Dynamic route planning in the Baltic Sea Region – A cost-benefit analysis based on AIS data," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 19(4), pages 631-649, December.
    8. Ghaforian Masodzadeh, Peyman & Ölçer, Aykut I. & Ballini, Fabio & Christodoulou, Anastasia, 2022. "How to bridge the short-term measures to the Market Based Measure? Proposal of a new hybrid MBM based on a new standard in ship operation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 123-142.
    9. Sun, Qinghe & Meng, Qiang & Chou, Mabel C., 2021. "Optimizing voyage charterparty (VCP) arrangement: Laytime negotiation and operations coordination," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(1), pages 263-270.
    10. Maxim A. Dulebenets & Junayed Pasha & Olumide F. Abioye & Masoud Kavoosi, 2021. "Vessel scheduling in liner shipping: a critical literature review and future research needs," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 43-106, March.
    11. Sotiria Lagouvardou & Harilaos N. Psaraftis & Thalis Zis, 2020. "A Literature Survey on Market-Based Measures for the Decarbonization of Shipping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, May.
    12. Xi Jiang & Haijun Mao & Yadong Wang & Hao Zhang, 2020. "Liner Shipping Schedule Design for Near-Sea Routes Considering Big Customers’ Preferences on Ship Arrival Time," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-20, September.
    13. Du, Yuquan & Meng, Qiang & Wang, Shuaian & Kuang, Haibo, 2019. "Two-phase optimal solutions for ship speed and trim optimization over a voyage using voyage report data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 88-114.
    14. Christiansen, Marielle & Fagerholt, Kjetil & Nygreen, Bjørn & Ronen, David, 2013. "Ship routing and scheduling in the new millennium," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(3), pages 467-483.
    15. Magirou, Evangelos F. & Psaraftis, Harilaos N. & Bouritas, Theodore, 2015. "The economic speed of an oceangoing vessel in a dynamic setting," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 48-67.
    16. Lixian Fan & Bingmei Gu, 2019. "Impacts of the Increasingly Strict Sulfur Limit on Compliance Option Choices: The Case Study of Chinese SECA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Orestis Schinas & Niklas Bergmann, 2021. "The Short-Term Cost of Greening the Global Fleet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-32, August.
    18. Adland, Roar & Cariou, Pierre & Wolff, François-Charles, 2018. "Does energy efficiency affect ship values in the second-hand market?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 347-359.
    19. Anastasia Christodoulou & Dimitrios Dalaklis & Aykut I. Ölçer & Peyman Ghaforian Masodzadeh, 2021. "Inclusion of Shipping in the EU-ETS: Assessing the Direct Costs for the Maritime Sector Using the MRV Data," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-20, June.
    20. Monios, Jason & Ng, Adolf K.Y., 2021. "Competing institutional logics and institutional erosion in environmental governance of maritime transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3220-:d:346282. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.