Huge Container Ships' Biggest Problem Is Emissions

The Ever Given drama in the Suez Canal momentarily turned the world’s attention to container shipping. It will require a more sustained focus to address the dangers these crucial ships pose to the climate. Shipping accounts for 3% of the world’s carbon emissions. If it were a country, the sector would be the world’s sixth-largest emitter.

Container shipping has drastically reduced shipping costs and, over the past 50 years, has arguably played a larger role in global commerce than all trade agreements put together. The ships, however, run on cheap “bunker fuel,” which when burned emits a large amount of carbon dioxide as well as black carbon, a fine particulate that can absorb a million times the energy of CO2 and may represent the second-largest contributor to climate change.