Energy efficient shipping – between research and implementation

Paper i proceeding, 2013

Shipping contributes to a substantial amount of CO2 emissions globally. To meet sustainability objectives, EU has requested a minimum 40% reduction of CO2 emissions from shipping by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Increased energy efficiency - defined as energy used per transportation work - through better operational practices, new technologies and improved logistic systems will be key issues in the effort to abate these emissions. The objective of this paper is to identify and describe the gap between present knowledge and implementation of available energy efficient measures among shipping companies. The results show that measures that cost-efficiently decrease the energy consumption of shipping companies are available; however, many of them are not implemented or used in daily operations. Implementation of operational and structural measures faces many challenges. This study highlights that there is very little time to plan, control and follow-up on voyages in shipping companies, and the crews seldom receive feedback on bunker consumption during or after a voyage. There is also to some extent a lack of incentives to apply new technologies and methods among crew and on-shore staff in the shipping companies.