The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) published a joint report on Wednesday 1 September showing the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships.
The first ever comprehensive report on the environmental impact of maritime transport shows that ships calling at EU and European Economic Area (EEA) ports released a total of approximately 140 million tonnes of CO2 in 2018. This represents about 18% of all CO2 emissions generated by maritime transport worldwide that year.
However, despite progress in terms of energy efficiency of ships, both Agencies fear that emissions from maritime transport will increase due to the expected growth of the sector.
“This report clearly shows that maritime transport in Europe and the entire international shipping community have an urgent responsibility to step up their efforts to reduce this sector’s environmental footprint”, said EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx.
Today, 77% of European external trade and 35% of trade between EU Member States is transported by sea, the report also notes.
Ships account for 13.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions from transport in the EU, behind road transport (71%) and aviation (14.4%).
In addition, maritime transport has other environmental impacts.
The two Agencies estimate that sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from ships calling at European ports in 2019 will be around 1.63 million tonnes, or about 16% of global SO2 emissions from international maritime transport.
The report also points to a sharp increase in noise from ships, the introduction of non-native species into the seas around the EU and oil pollution of the water (oil spills).
Reacting to the publication, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, said in part: “The message is clear: maritime transport is expected to increase in the coming years and unless we act now, the sector will produce more and more greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants and underwater noise”.
In order to tackle GHG emissions from the maritime sector, the European Commission recently proposed to include the sector in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) starting in 2023. According to the institution’s proposal, this would cover emissions from intra-EEA journeys, emissions at berth in a port under the jurisdiction of a Member State, and 50% of emissions from all extra-EEA journeys (incoming and outgoing) (see EUROPE 12762/1).
See the report: https://bit.ly/3kMAcHd (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)