The pandemic has exposed serious weaknesses in the global supply chain, causing a backup of cargo ships in seaports around the world. While consumers have experienced rising prices and severe delivery delays, the problem has also led to a disconcerting rise in shipping emissions at jammed-up ports.
In the US, the problem has been particularly severe at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest shipping complex in the Western Hemisphere, as many as 70 ships at a time often idle at sea, awaiting entry to the port. According to the California Air Resources Board, over the last two years, ships using the Southern California ports are pumping an additional 20 tons of smog-inducing nitrogen oxides into the air each day. The report concludes that this is the equivalent of adding 5.8 million passenger cars to the region.
To help address the problem and to reduce pollution beyond the era of the pandemic, the Danish shipping conglomerate Maersk announced this week a new project meant to reduce the amount of air pollution emitted by idling ships. Their solution is to use charging buoys connected to underwater power cables that connect to onshore renewable power sources like wind farms and other green energy sources. The new venture is being developed by a Maersk subsidiary called (meaning “quiet power” in Danish).
“Our vision is that, following proof of concept, within five years of commercialization we will be at around 50 to 100 ports, including those with wind farms nearby,” says. “This will be the equivalent of displacing 5.5 million tons of CO2.” (That’s an amount approximately equal to the carbon output of about 11 million barrels of oil.) “It also removes all the particle pollution associated with idle vessels,” Toff added.
While the company would not comment on which ports they are talking to, they acknowledged that the US is in their sights. “Both the east and west coast [of the] US and Canada, are areas of huge interest for us,” says Toff.
Toff also noted that the system will not be exclusive to Maersk. “It’s very important for us to emphasize that this is not only for our vessels,” he says. “This is for the global maritime fleet.”
The shipping industry is a significant source of carbon emissions and has long been targeted by environmental groups for a lack of action on carbon reduction. Overall, shipping is said to account for roughly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 10 percent of transport emissions, and the industry is currently far from meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Pandemic-induced supply chain snarls have brought attention to ship emissions near ports, although the problem has existed for decades. But never before have so many ships been held up outside of ports around the globe. At the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, the problem has lasted for over a year. According to data from the Ocean Exchange, on Tuesday, Jan. 25, a total of 27 container ships were anchored offshore.
“If it works, I think it will be a big step forward for those ships that are able to access electric power instead of running their auxiliary engines, because then you go to zero emissions both offshore and at dock,” says David , a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
You must be logged in to post a comment.