4 ms·
For what it's worth, marine shipping is the single most fuel efficient way of moving anything anywhere. A large cargo ship can move a ton of cargo up to 1000 mi
by arcticbull 4y ago
For what it's worth, marine shipping is the single most fuel efficient way of moving anything anywhere. A large cargo ship can move a ton of cargo up to 1000 miles on a single gallon of fuel. [1]
Second is freight trains, at about 500 miles per gallon per ton. [2]
[edit] #3 is freight trucks at about 134 miles per gallon per ton [3] and pulling up the rear is air transport at at somewhere around 1/10th of trains.
[1] https://www.extension.iastate.edu/grain/topics/EstimatesofTotalFuelConsumption.htm https://www.extension.iastate.edu/grain/topics/EstimatesofTo...
[2] https://www.aar.org/article/freight-rail-moving-miles-ahead-on-sustainability/ https://www.aar.org/article/freight-rail-moving-miles-ahead-...
[3] https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fuel-efficiency/ https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fue...
- acdha 4y agoMy understanding is that shipping is fuel efficient but not emissions efficient because that hasn't been required by the flag countries popularly used to register vehicles so you're basically seeing things like a half century-old design from an emissions control perspective. Since that industry is so cost sensitive something like this makes sense for closing that loophole.
- arcticbull 4y agoI agree, but it seems like they're charging them for carbon, not for other emissions? If you want to cut down on carbon, taxing air freight seems like the way to go. My concern is they're likely to redirect marine cargo to other modes which is going to be worse from a carbon intensity perspective.
- acdha 4y agoAgreed, but I would think this should be a “do both” situation since that'd preserve the status quo keeping air cargo more expensive and tell everyone that they need to make capital investments or change how they work to be less carbon intensive.
- pipo234 4y agoHopefully the tax will lead to different consumption patterns. Once you stop flying the single most impactful change is stop buying stuff. Never mind energy, food, local travels. For "stuff" the majority of emissions is in production (mining), but relentlessly moving matter across the world because fossil fuels are mostly untaxed is also a major factor
- Cerium 4y agoSounds like a great place to start since the cost will be very low per ton of cargo?
- pipo234 4y agoTrue. But at the same time, it should also be noted that the top 16 largest ships emit as much CO2 as all cars in the world. https://www.lngtransfer.com/news/the-16-biggest-ships-produce-more-pollution-than-all-the-cars-in-the-world/ https://www.lngtransfer.com/news/the-16-biggest-ships-produc...
- polski-g 4y agoThe article you linked does not support your claim.
- deepnotderp 4y agoNo. Ready your own link, the top 16 ships produce more particulate emissions (sulfur and nitrogen oxides especially), because of low regulations and cost pressures driving the use of low quality fuels (bunker fuel).
- pipo234 4y agoI stand corrected. And agree that EU's regulation would also benefit from taking a more holistic view on pollution than my (erroneous) zealotting on CO2 alone.
- crote 4y agoThat's already the case, actually! A lot of the European waters have had quite strict limitations on the fuel's NOx and SOx contents for over 15 years already - and shipping was pretty much the last remaining industry allowed to use such high-pollutant fuel.
- bombcar 4y agoEuropean waters - the ships burn the nasty shit in international waters and switch to clean fuel when approaching the countries. There needs to be some way to get them to burn the clean fuel all the time - perhaps by climate concerned nations removing naval protection from boats that aren't burning clean.
- nicoburns 4y agoIt's still not nearly as efficient of not moving things in the first place. Perhaps if shipping has to pay for it's carbon emissions then it'll shift the economic balance more towards local economies.
- FpUser 4y agoAnd many local economies are no longer capable of producing anything meaningful at the prices "locals" can actually afford.
- spookie 4y agoHow so? Last I checked essential goods are pretty cheap if you buy locally.
- FpUser 4y agoI do not know about other places but here in Canada it is exactly the other way around for the most part.
- factsarelolz 4y agoLast I checked essential goods are pretty expensive if you buy locally.
- legitster 4y agoAgreed. Though if there is an easy win here like using slightly higher grade bunker oil to power the ships, the impact could be huge.
- charles_f 4y agoWrong, the most carbon efficient transport mode is not to ship at all. Taxing transport creates the opportunity for local manufacturing to become profitable