Launch of Public Database Could Spur Low Carbon Shipping

Not-for-profit organization Carbon War Room moved the shipping industry one step closer to a low-carbon future with the launch Monday of a new data hub that publicizes the relative energy efficiency of almost every large ocean-going vessel and specific data on emissions from container ships.

Before, it was very hard to tell an efficient, low-emission ship from an inefficient, heavily carbon-emitting one. Using a simple search function, users can now pull up an A to G efficiency rating for around 60,000 “active” vessels, including the majority of the world’s container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, cargo ships, cruise ships and ferries.

"The Carbon War Room has been advocating the need for business to play a leading role in the fight to reduce carbon emissions,” said Sir Richard Branson, Co-Founder of the Carbon War Room. “The data hub for shipping will help the key players in the industry and their customers make better decisions for their businesses and ultimately the planet.”

Shipping produces almost 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide emissions each year, or a thousand million tons, more than the total emissions of Germany. The Carbon War Room saw an opportunity to support its ambitions of rapid, large-scale emissions reduction by entrepreneurial means, in targeting the sector. They, and others, have estimated that there is more than 30% profitable efficiency potential on current technology.

The implications of the datatbase at shippingefficiency.org are far reaching:

• Shippers and charterers of ships will be able to select vessels for their cargo that can reduce the product’s carbon footprint as well as save costs for their consumers.
• Ports can offer incentives to cleaner ships, helping the port achieve its clean air action plans,
• Ship-owners will have renewed incentives and ability to invest in vessel efficiency; the value of the investment becoming more apparent to banks, insurers, charterers, brokers and buyers.

“The aim of our shipping operation is to catalyze a step change to a profitable but truly sustainable industry. Greater transparency of vessel efficiency and emissions is a vital element of the solution” says Peter Boyd, Chief Operations Officer of the Carbon War Room. “We believe that the relative rating of clean and dirty ships will provide the market signals needed to remove barriers preventing capital flowing to clean technologies and make gigaton-scale reductions in emissions a real possibility.”

The rating uses methodology developed by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) and information from international ship registers. As a website in ‘permanent beta mode’, ship-owners and operators are encouraged to update records at shippingefficiency.org so that implemented efficiency improvements and class society verified ratings will make the data hub more and more useful over time.

Future enhancements to the website include ´A-G’ ratings for container- specific carbon data, which is thought by many insiders to be a more exact comparison for the container class.

Boyd added, “We simply want to see the best efficiency information freely available to the market. We are agnostic to specific technologies and measures, and open to publicizing data that can transform the economic trajectory for the industry.”

The website is publically available and free of charge.