Environmental discounts for Swedish ports and fairways: A ship owner perspective
Journal article, 2024

Sweden has adopted environmental discounts for ships arriving at fairways and in some ports to encourage investment in measures to reduce shipping's impact on climate change, air quality and marine environment. The present study investigates the impact of these discounts in 2020 on investment decisions made by ship-owners. As a starting point, this impact was assessed by comparing the potential annual benefits of the discounts with the annualized costs of retrofitting four selected abatement technologies. The results indicate that, while the port discounts are relatively small when compared to the costs of abatement, the fairway discounts could be significant for ships frequently calling at Swedish ports under specific conditions. However, we conclude that the discounts alone are insufficient to incentivize ship-owners to invest in abatement technologies for older ships. To improve the usefulness of these discounts, the design should incorporate a more precise internalization of abatement costs. This could be achieved by implementing individual discounts for different abatement strategies, establishing dedicated subsidies for high-cost innovative technologies, enhancing scoring systems, and by better matching the discount with other market-based policies internationally.

Antifouling paint

Marine battery

Environmentally differentiated port fees

Selective catalytic reduction

Onshore power supply

Cost of abatement

Author

Rasmus Parsmo

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Erik Ytreberg

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

Maarten Verdaasdonk

Daesdonck

Erik Fridell

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies

Marine Policy

0308-597X (ISSN)

Vol. 159 105950

EXIT - Externa kostnader, styrmedel och kostnadseffektiva åtgärder för att nå en hållbar sjöfart

Swedish Transport Administration (TRV2021/12071), 2022-02-01 -- 2025-01-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Economics

DOI

10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105950

More information

Latest update

12/20/2023