The greenhouse gas emissions of shipping increased from 977 million tonnes (Mt) in 2012 to 1,076 Mt in 2018, a 9.6% rise. Over this period the carbon intensity of shipping operations improved by about 11%, but these efficiency gains were outstripped by growth in activity.
By 2050 emissions are projected to have increased by up to 50% relative to 2018, despite further efficiency gains, as there is expected to be continued growth of transport demand. While the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic will probably cause a decline in emissions in 2020, these are not expected to significantly affect projections for the coming decades.
These are the main findings of the Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study, prepared for the International Maritime Organization by an international consortium comprising ten consultancies, research institutes and universities from four continents and led by CE Delft (the Netherlands), alphabetically as follows: ClassNK (Japan), Dalian Maritime University (China), Fudan University (China), Institute of Economic Research Foundation, University of São Paulo (Brazil), International Council on Clean Transportation, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), National Maritime Research Institute, National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology (Japan), Purdue University (USA) and UMAS, University College London (UK).
Find the report on the IMO-website
Shinichi Hanayama, Shuang Zhang, Paula Pereda, Bryan Comer, Elena Hauerhof, Wendela Schim van der Loeff, Tristan Smith, Yan Zhang, Hiroyuko Kosaka, Masaki Adachi, Jean-Marc Bonello, Connor Galbraith, Ziheng Gong, Koichi Hirata, David Hummels, David S. Lee, Yiming Liu, Andrea Lucchesi, Xiaoli Mao, Eiichi Muraoka, Liudmila Osipova, Haoqi Qian, Dan Rutherford, Santiago Suárez de la Fuente, Haichao Yuan, Camilo Velandia Perico, Libo Wu, Deping Sun, Dong-Hoon Yoo and Hui Xing