Ocean vessels will be ringing in the new year with new sustainability regulations.
Starting Jan. 1, all ships will have to calculate energy efficiency and carbon intensity measures and submit them annually to the International Maritime Organization.
Miako Ushio, manager of environmental and regulatory affairs for the Shipping Federation of Canada, said the measures are part of a 2018 strategy to reduce greenhouse gases from the industry.
The IMO has committed to reduce carbon intensity from all ships by 40 percent by 2030, compared to 2008 levels.
Ships will be required to track their energy efficiency and carbon intensity and make annual improvements, with less efficient, often older vessels, needing to make bigger changes than the more efficient ones.
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One major way to improve efficiency is by using a low-carbon fuel instead of a fossil fuel.
“Vessels are trialing a whole host of different alternative fuels,” said Ushio.
Some of the fuels they are working with are second generation biofuels, liquefied natural gas and methanol.
“Industry is on board with getting to alternative fuels but there’s a lot of work to do,” she said.
A more near-term strategy for reducing emissions is something called power limiting.
“It’s basically slowing down or optimizing your route,” said Ushio.
Ship captains are constantly weighing the fuel savings of slowing down against the time costs of spending longer at sea. This regulation tilts the throttle more towards the former.
Other measures that can improve a ship’s rating are cleaning the hull to reduce drag, installing low energy light bulbs and installing solar/wind auxiliary power.
Ships are responsible for three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“It is by far the most efficient form of transport,” said Ushio.
“It is more efficient than rail or truck.”
Much of Western Canada’s grain crops move to overseas markets by ship.
In 2020-21, a record 44.7 million tonnes of grain were exported through terminal elevators at Canada’s four western Canadian ports to markets in Asia.
Another 2.9 million tonnes were railed to eastern Canadian ports for shipment to markets in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
To put that shipping export volume in perspective, farmers in Western Canada harvested 78.5 million tonnes of grain that year.
Ushio said customers of Canadian grain and other products are becoming increasingly interested in “low impact” shipping.
“This is the big issue that shipping companies are focused on now and for the foreseeable future,” she said.
The IMO has established a target of a 50 percent reduction in shipping-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but that target has come under scrutiny.
“A lot of countries, including Canada, are pushing to make that target more ambitious and make it zero or net zero by 2050,” she said.
In the meantime, there are a host of initiatives underway, such as one stemming from Canada signing of the Clydebank Declaration at COP26.
“That’s basically a statement that was signed by many governments supporting the development of green corridors between different nations,” she said.
Canada is exploring a green corridor with the United States via the Great Lakes. Some Canadian ports are also negotiating green corridors with overseas ports, such as Montreal and Antwerp, as well as Halifax and Hamburg.
The idea is to ensure that each port would offer the same type of alternative fuel, so a ship that is built to use a new type of fuel can be assured that it is available at both ports on a trade route.
Another green corridor initiative would be offering shore power, so boats can plug in while docked rather than running their engines for power.
“This is a pretty new concept,” she said.
“These links are starting to be made between ports.”
Ushio said another major emerging trend are voluntary environmental certification programs.
Ship classification societies establish and maintain technical standards for ships and provide environmental notations for the most environmentally friendly ships, which can result in reduced fees at ports that are encouraging greener ships.
