There is more than optimistic cargo numbers to kick off 2018 down at the waterfront.
As Business in Vancouver’s Outlook 2018 report noted (“Shipping On Course for Recovery: Analysts”– issue 1468–69; December 19–January 1, 2018), the marine forecast for shipping on the transpacific and other major trade routes is generally bright.
As always, there are marketplace hazards and political wild cards that require astute navigational skills. That’s business as usual.
However, what’s not business as usual in the global shipping sector is action on environmental issues. It’s encouraging, therefore, to find in the Port of Vancouver’s most recent Port Emissions Inventory Report reductions in air pollutants even with increased cargo movement. Percentage change in air pollutants from ships, for example, dropped 36% in 2015 compared with 2010; emissions from trucks and other vehicles were 31% lower over the same period.
There has been far less pollution reduction progress in the wider world, but that could change. A major International Maritime Organization (IMO) initiative aims to reduce harmful air emissions from deepwater freighters. The changes are long overdue. Low-grade bunker fuel, which is used by thousands of ships on international trade routes, has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in automobiles.
Ships in international waters are beholden to no nation’s environmental standards or emission control areas. The IMO therefore plans to reduce the allowable sulphur content of marine fuels to 0.5% from 3.5% starting in January 2020.
Although questions remain over how the more stringent fuel rules will be enforced, the IMO’s decision to finally address what is a major international source of air pollution focuses attention on a largely unregulated area of industrial greenhouse gas emissions and global airshed degradation.
