Tyndall Centre report on emissions from shipping

The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester released a media statement and 83 page report on emissions from UK shipping. A key issue covered in the report is the different methods of apportioning emissions to individual countries.

The Guardian published an article on the findings of the report on 23 September 2010.

Oceanic Voyages report from the ADB

Last year the Asian Development Bank (ADB) based in Manila published a three-volume report, Oceanic Voyages: Aviation and Shipping in the Pacific Region. The report is full of case studies and is now available online.

The focus is on the international transport challenges facing the Pacific Islands with their small markets and vast distances. The aviation volume was drafted by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and the shipping volume was drafted by Meyrick and Associates.

Shipping emissions

A 3 March 2007 article in the Guardian by John Vidal headed "CO2 output from shipping twice as much as airlines" points to new research by BP Marine and the German Institute for Physics and Atmosphere about emissions from shipping being higher than previously thought. These studies have attracted the attention of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based NGO.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) based in London plays a similar role in setting environmental standards to that played by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) with respect to aviation and emissions. The European Commission's DG Environment also takes close interest in ship emissions.

Again like aviation, the environmental impact of shipping is being ameliorated as new technology is introduced but it would seem that the growth in cargo volumes is more than offsetting this progress.

Maritime Transport page added to my web site

Having discover last week that I and some of my colleagues are going to be helping out on shipping policy over the coming few months (in the past my involvement has mainly been related to the maritime aspects of the Doha Round of trade talks), I have just spent a good portion of today developing a new Maritime Transport page for my home pages.

What struck me in completing the new page is the amount of consolidation that has been going on in the international liner shipping industry in the recent past, something that some of the web pages of New Zealand port companies have yet to catch up with.

The additional maritime-related links now take the total number of links off my home pages to well over the thousand mark.

Now I have a good excuse to see if I can make time to take some more shipping and sea port photographs to add to the new page.