Shipping industry needs stricter regulations to curb methane emissions – ICCT
The IMO and its member countries should come up with more stringent policies by 2025 to curb shipping's methane emissions, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) said in a recent report.
PHOTO: LNG carrier vessel. Getty Images
The ICCT has once again warned of methane emissions associated with LNG-powered ships and noted that using LNG as a bunker fuel without strict regulations could undermine international shipping's decarbonisation efforts.
LNG is growing as an alternative marine fuel and has become more widely available, technologically advanced and is often competitively priced. Classification society DNV's latest tally shows that there are now 1,006 LNG-capable vessels in operation or on order for delivery towards 2028.
The fuel may offer reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to conventional marine fuels such as VLSFO and HSFO in the near-term. However, it can have higher well-to-wake greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than conventional fuels because of methane leakages during extraction, processing, transport and incomplete combustion of the fuel, according an earlier white paper from the ICCT.
These methane emissions can offset the lowered CO2 emissions as methane has a much higher global warming potential than CO2.
According to the ICCT report, LNG carriers emitted around 82% of shipping's methane emissions in 2021. This was followed by offshore vessels and ferries at 5% each, and cruise and container ships at 3% and 2%, respectively.
It called on the IMO and regional governments to develop “strict, binding measures” to limit well-to-wake GHG emissions from marine fuels. It also pointed out that these measures must have stricter targets than the EU's FuelEU Maritime Regulation to curb methane emissions.
“With the FuelEU maritime regulation in effect, by 2030, ships could only use [low-pressure, dual-fuel] LPDF 4-stroke engines with 100% fossil LNG if they also use credits from overperforming ships in their fleet or buy credits from other ships; absent that, they will have to use a mix of fossil LNG and qualifying bio- or synthetic fuels. This is because the European Union included methane slip and upstream well-to-tank emissions in the regulations," the ICCT report explains.
Ships powered by low-pressure engines are more susceptible to methane leaks than those powered by high-pressure ones, ICCT claims. It estimates that low-pressure, dual-fuel (LPDF) four-stroke engines accounted for 86% of maritime methane emissions in 2021, while LPDF two-stroke engines accounted for 12%.
The IMO is expected to impose a GHG Fuel Standard from 2025, with implementation from 2027. ICCT argues that this Fuel Standard “will have to break from historical patterns of lagging behind the European Union and be more stringent from the start” to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
“After all, the EU regulation aims for 80% reduction in the GHG intensity, not 100%, by 2050,” the non-profit argues.
The ICCT also suggests that 150 signatories to the Global Methane Pledge could meet their self-imposed target of a 30% reduction in global methane emissions between 2020-2030 if they adopted more ambitious maritime methane emission reduction targets than the EU.
By Konica Bhatt
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