The Climate Challenge | Our Focus: Clean Energy Ships

The global shipping industry is a massive climate polluter

Out of sight, out of mind for most people, ships emit 1 billion metric tons—or one gigaton—of climate-warming carbon dioxide a year. Shipping is also a rising emitter of super-polluting methane emissions, as the global oil & gas industry seeks to lock in decades of ship and port reliance on liquified natural gas. Without intervention, the global shipping industry will account for over 17% of global warming by 2050.

Pacific Environment’s Ports for People campaign is working to end ship pollution by 2040 and together with our partners we are leading the Ship It Zero campaign to move the world’s largest retail companies to 100% zero-emission ocean shipping.

Pacific Environment has always been able to accomplish tough goals. Its efforts to push for a ban of dangerous fuel oil in Arctic waters shows they are at it again.
Charles Moore, formerly Program Officer, JM Kaplan Fund

Shipping companies rely on business from household names like Amazon, Target, and IKEA. We push companies to achieve zero-emission shipping in their supply chains by 2040 with place-based pressure, novel research, and relentless communication.
Together with local communities, allies and partners, we seek to transform ports from hotspots of fossil fuel pollution to thriving hubs of sustainable economic development and environmental protection.
Ships must abide by the rules and regulations of the ports at which they dock. We campaign for zero-emission regulations at local, regional, national and international levels to use policy to create new zero-emission markets.
We are active in the U.S. (California, Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C.), Republic of Korea (Ulsan, Busan, and Seoul), Singapore and Japan.

Shipping
Organizing
Policy
Global

In the Arctic, heavy fuel oil threatens some of the world's largest seabird colonies and populations of whales, seals, and walrus. (Photo: NOAA)

Indigenous peoples across the Arctic practice traditional ways of life closely connected to the waters on which they rely for food. (Photo: Austin Ahmasuk)

One of the most serious threats from increased shipping in the Arctic and Southeast Asia is a heavy fuel oil spill. (Photo: Pacific Environment/P)

Southeast Asia is home to the world's heaviest ship traffic and will likely bear the brunt of the industry expansion in the next three decades—and its air and water pollution. (Photo: Roberto Venturini CC BY 2.0)

Fighting at the highest levels to move ships off fossil fuels

Ship traffic across the world’s oceans has quadrupled over the past 20 years. We are fighting to transition all ships from old fossil fuels to new, cleaner energy sources to minimize shipping’s contribution to climate change.

International advocacy

The shipping industry was omitted from the Paris Climate Agreement Many industry stakeholders claim that the shipping industry is exempt from the Paris Climate Agreement. Instead, they look to the International Maritime Organization, which has repeatedly set targets that are not aligned with a 1.5 degrees Celsius decarbonization pathway. This lack of ambition is what makes Pacific Environment’s campaigns so critical. With partners, we drive a range of stakeholders from across corporate, policy, and port venues to do what they can to decarbonize shipping.

Public health

Beyond climate warming emissions, pollution from ships has significant public health impacts. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimates that ship and port pollution contribute to an estimated 3,700 premature deaths each year in California alone. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, residents who live in port-adjacent neighborhoods have life expectancies that are eight years lower than the Los Angeles County average. CARB also projects that ships account for most of the poisonous, smog-forming nitrous oxides (NOx) in Southern California as early as 2023—surpassing heavy-duty trucks and all other industrial sources.

Clean energy

We advocate stronger fuel-efficiency and greener design standards. We pressure the State of California to transition harbor crafts to zero emission as quickly as possible, serving as an example to other U.S. states. And we encourage the shipping industry to invest in renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydrogen and ammonia to generate clean energy solutions for all ships, no matter their size.

Greenhouse gas emissions from ships were not included in the Paris climate agreement.
Greenhouse gas emissions from ships are expected to grow between 50 and 250 percent by 2050 if left unchecked.
Ship exhaust contains air pollutants that cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, even premature death.