More greenhouse gases and more risk of colliding with whales: the impact of maritime transport in Europe

Mar transport holds world trade as it is currently mounted. Up to 74% of all goods imported and exported by the European Union travel through sea and that entails “added environmental impacts”, Admits the European Maritime Transportation Agency (EMTA) in its environmental report published Tuesday. Among them, a sustained increase in greenhouse gases that injected into the atmosphere – causa of the climatic crisis – and the growing risk of ships being carried in front of whales.

The maritime sector in Europe emits almost both CO2 and the airplanes, says the EMTA. And that volume does not stop growing since, at least, 2015, according to the agency’s calculations. In 2022 they reached 137.5 million tons of the gas, that represents a jump of 8.5% compared to the previous year.

And it’s not just CO2. The methane (CH4) launched by ships has doubled between 2018 and 2023. That gas, although much less active time remains in the atmosphere, has a great greenhouse power, about 80 times more than CO2. Behind this increase is the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and “of the total number of ships” propelled by this fossil fuel that “generates more methane emissions than ships fed with conventional fuels,” says the EMTA, that is, the diesel obtained from oil.

The report does report, at least, good news about ship chimneys: pollutant emissions by sulfur oxide have fallen 70% since 2014. This progress, he points out, is due to the introduction of emissions control areas of emissions control areas This toxic at sea in northern Europe. The same measure (called Dry) will enter into force in the Mediterranean in May of this year.

Not everything is good in this field: nitrogen oxides have grown by 10% on average despite the fact that emission control areas have been established in the North and Baltic Sea. But, as the document details, “they only apply to new ships and therefore this measure still has low penetration rates.” That is, many ships have still been exempt from regulation.

The agency estimates that marine trash causes in European territory, especially on beaches, both transport and fishing is decreasing. The truth is that most garbage, essentially plastic, comes from inland. However, pollution due to loss of pellets underlines.

The data indicates that transport pours to the sea every year between 141 and 279 tons of pellets, mainly of lost containers. This loss, they explain, “may have immediate repercussions and long term.” And they put as an example the episode of the Toconao freighter that, at the end of 2023, released about 23 tons of pellets on the Galician coasts that caused “environmental damage and gave rise to great cleaning efforts.” In fact, three months after the spill, the pellets contaminated protected waters hundreds of kilometers away.

Biodiversity run over in the water

The aggression that intensive maritime transport causes ecosystems comes in multiple ways: port expansion, dredging, turbidity and anchorage – which affect 27% of the seabed near the coast in Europe. These activities cause “physical disturbances or loss of habitats.” Just imagine the anchors about sea grasslands.

In addition, the agency’s analyzes have concluded that “there has been a notable increased risk of collision between ships and marine fauna within the protected areas of Natura 2000”. The critical points of shocks with whales and turtles are: the great North Sea, the southern coast of the Vizcaya Gulf, the Gibraltar region and some parts of the Aegean Sea.

The Executive Director of the Ocean Care organization, Fabienne McLellan, reflects after seeing the report that the message given this work is clear: “The binding measures work.” That is, the mandatory regulations that have achieved “the drastic reduction in the emissions of maritime transport rust.”

So, it continues, as ships are the main cause of underwater noise, collisions and gas emissions, MC Lellan states as a measure to address these issues “to reduce the speed of ships that, in addition, does not require new technologies but only only political will ”

According to this organization, making ships travel more slow collisions with whales 78%. And he insists that “the reduction in the speed of ships is the most profitable way to reduce the environmental impact of maritime transport.”