OAKLAND, Calif. — At a conference for the shipping industry in Oslo, Norway, last week, the COO of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) said that significant cuts in carbon emissions from the industry are within reach.
"If you can achieve a 15 percent reduction [in carbon emissions] from the existing fleet, then it is possible to reach carbon neutral emissions," Tor Svensen, Chief Operating Officer for maritime activities at DNV, said at a news conference, according to
a report from Thomson Reuters.
Following up on that prediction, an article by Keith Wallis in
Lloyd's List (
reprinted in full here) looks at how the shipping industry is improving its impact far beyond the emissions from transporting goods around the globe.
Wallis highlights a handful of green innovations in the article:
Whether it is green ship recycling in China at facilities in Guangdong and Shanghai that have been spearheaded by Maersk; improvements in hull, rudder and propeller design that have been investigated by carriers such as CMA CGM and classification societies including Germanischer Lloyd and Lloyd's Register; or more fuel-efficient trucks that are on trial at Federal Express and Agility Logistics, all have their place as green innovations.
The news follows a flurry of shipping-related activity in the past year: In July 2008, 55 ports from all over the world
signed an agreement to systematically cut their emissions. At the end of last year, the United Kingdom's shipping industry
floated the idea for a maritime cap-and-trade system, while both
California, the
U.S. Congress and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency all worked on laws requiring cleaner fuel for shipping vessels.
Shipping photos CC-licensed by Flickr users Bruno S. Domingues and Grantsviews.
