Oceanic shipping vessels: Huge contributor of Greenhouse Gasses?

September 16, 2022

By: Kaitlyn Soto

Spatial distribution of CO2 emissions from East Asian shipping (Liu, H., Fu, M., Jin, X. et al).


 East Asia holds “8 of the top 10” most successful ports worldwide (2016). However, the success of these ports has significant repercussions for the people living in the area. Emissions of ocean vessels have left residents nearshore and inland with severe health defects such as respiratory diseases and cancer. The emissions also result in 24,000 anual premature deaths in East Asia (2016). The third IMO Greenhouse Gas study of 2012 found that the East Asian ports contribute about 16% of CO2 emissions (2016). That is about 11% more than their first study in 2000 which estimated the CO2 emissions to be 4.5%. The findings of this article advance environmental sustainability by providing accurate research of the emissions produced by vessels in East Asia which was not done before. Therefore, shedding light that East Asia's climate change and air pollution area due to the activity in the ports. Potential outlooks of this research would be the effects the emissions have on the oceanic wildlife, if these results are negative, will it affect food from the ocean (fish, lobster, etc)?  A potential tradeoff- the data found on the CO2 emissions and their effects on the residents will result in attempts to avoid a positive trend of global emissions in years to come.


Reference

Liu, H., Fu, M., Jin, X. et al. 2016. Health and climate impacts of ocean-going vessels in East Asia. Nature Clim Change. J. Environ. Qual. 6: 1037–1041 

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