Could ‘slow steaming’ be the solution to the cargo ship emissions problem?

This week, the results of a study commissioned by environmental groups Seas at Risk and Transport and Environment was released. The Reynolds Environmental Sustainability Consultants (RESC) announced that they had determined that “slow steaming,” or the practice of ships operating at reduced speeds, could have massive environmental benefits. The group claims that reducing ship speed by 20 percent would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 34 percent, as well as reducing underwater noise pollution and the probability of fatal whale strikes. Additionally, the study claimed that ship speed limits could provide not just environmental benefits, but financial ones, too, by reducing overall shipping costs. The study proposed implementing slow steaming regulations in order to lower the adverse effects that cargo shipping has on the environment. Even minimal changes could have massive impacts on the way that goods are transported as, according to some estimates, up to 80 per cent of manufactured goods are transported via cargo ship at some point in their production.

 The announcement of these findings comes ahead of UN negotiations that are set to take place in London this week to discuss ways to minimize the environmental impact of ships. The results of the study have fueled the debate about whether speed limits should be imposed on ships in order to do so. This is not the first time that regulations have been considered for this issue. Action was first taken in April 2018 when industry leaders agreed to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. Limitations were also put on the amount of Sulphur in ships’ fuel, with an aim to reduce it from 3.5 to 0.5 per cent beginning in 2020. These changes came after over 100 executives petitioned the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN agency, to express their desire to implement speed limits for ships. The signatories of this request stated that they preferred container ships to have their maximum speeds calculated as an average over the course of the calendar year, thus allowing for those transporting perishable goods to move faster during peak seasons, while other types of ships should have maximum speeds that they must always abide by. Some of the signatories included heads of Euronav and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, the world’s leading crude oil tanker corporation. 

 Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the potential implementation of slow steaming regulations, though. Representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil have historically opposed such regulations. The issue was originally going to be covered under the Paris Agreement, but was dropped without explanation before the agreement was finalized. Further, there are still many questions about how such speed limits would be imposed on a global scale. When asked, Ioanna Prokopiou, CEO of Prominence Maritime, one of the signatories of the IMO petition, said that she “[didn’t] know who’s going to enforce punishment.” Additionally, others have argued that slowing down ships may require a larger number of vessels to transport the same quantity of goods, which would increase overall emissions. Notable proponents of this theory include the UK Chamber of Shipping, who released a statement in response to the recent RESC study results stating that “slow shipping is not the answer to cutting emissions” and that any “one-size-fits-all approach” to the issue of ship emissions was bound to fail.

Despite these criticisms, many are still convinced that slow steaming is the easiest solution currently available to reduce the environmental impact of ships. Proponents point to the fact that measures to track ship speeds could be implemented immediately. As Nicolas Urdea, a French representative to the IMO, explains,“you can implement it in every ship. There’s no need to retrofit the ships [with new technology], you can do it with existing ships and you can do it now.” Additionally, shipping companies have demonstrated that they are willing and able to quickly implement slow steaming policies in the past. This was seen most notably during the 2008 financial crisis due to decreased trade and increased oil prices. While further measures will likely need to be taken in the future to further reduce the adverse effects of cargo ships, for now, as John Maggs from Seas at Risk argues,“speed reduction is the closest thing to a silver bullet the IMO will ever see.”