Rhys BerryA new study published by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has found that ships operating in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway region consumed 500,000 metric tonnes (mt) of fuel in 2019, emitting approximately 1.6 million mt of CO2 emissions.
Using the Systematic Assessment of Vessel Emissions (SAVE) model developed by ICCT, the authors estimated fuel use and emissions based on satellite and terrestrial Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from exactEarth and ship characteristics from IHS Markit.
Of the CO2 emissions, about two-thirds occurred in US waters. Of the fuel consumed, 83% was low-sulphur distillate fuel, 15% was high-sulphur residual fuel used by ships with scrubbers, and 2% was LNG.
Bulk carriers were responsible for about 62% of the CO2 emissions in 2019, and U.S.- and Canada-flagged vessels emitted 80% of the CO2 emissions, split roughly evenly between the two.
‘This work can be used by a variety of stakeholders as a baseline to understand the potential benefits of developing policies, action plans, and roadmaps that can improve the environmental performance of the GL-SLS maritime transportation sector,’ said ICCT. ‘We intend to periodically update his analysis with results for other years, as data and resources allow.’
To download the report, click here.
Ariane Morrissey
