The world's marine shipping fleet – 60,000 vessels strong and responsible for moving 90% of the world's internationally traded goods – is a critical and growing part of the world economy. Less well known is that the world's marine shipping fleet is a global environmental menace of the first order.
These ships burn some of the world's dirtiest fuel – more than 3,000 times dirtier than the fuel that is required to be burned in US and European diesel cars and trucks. The world's oceangoing ships spews millions of tons of nitrogen and sulfur oxides into the air each year – up to 30 % of the world's total NOx and almost 10% of the total SOx emissions. These pollutants form deadly fine particle pollution, ozone smog, acid rain, and contribute to the nitrification and eutrophication of coastal wetlands and waterways. Although the ship smokestacks are literally "out of sight" most of the time, in fact most of their pollutants are emitted within 250 miles of shore and threaten the health and environment of communities well inland.
The fleet also produces over 800 million tons of the greenhouse gas CO2 annually – almost 3 percent of the world's total, more than that from entire industrialized nations such as Germany and the United Kingdom, or about as much as half of the coal plants in the U.S. International shipping also emits an estimated 50,000-70,000 tons per year of black carbon soot, a short-term climate forcing agent that speeds up warming, especially the Arctic regions, where the soot deposits and absorbs heat like asphalt on a hot summer day, melting the underlying ice. Because of this, as shipping fleets move further north they may have a disproportionate impact on Arctic ice melting.
The CATF marine project works cooperatively with a group of international environmental organizations involved in international negotiations to reduce pollution and global warming emissions from oceangoing ships, providing technical, scientific and advocacy resources to the process.
Learn more about CATF's work on international shipping emissions: