Partnerships for cleaner shipping

What is it about?

International shipping has environmental impact on air quality, especially in those regions with intense traffic. As a result, lots of health-associated cardio-pulmonary illnesses are being reported. This trend is being addressed by authorities with the creation of Emission Control Areas (ECAs) in places such as the North Sea or the Baltic Sea. The idea is that shipping companies will have to tackle their emissions of pollutants such as SOx. The problem arises when the shipping companies find the regulation to be bad for their business models through the associated costs of compliance. How then can shipping companies reduce their emissions of SOx, while at the same time being competitive? In this paper, the authors study two of those strategies set by Danish shipping firms, public agencies, and maritime equipment suppliers. These are partnerships designed specifically to develop the ECA compliant- technologies in a collaborative way.

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Why is it important?

It is important to understand the processes and outcomes in these public-private partnerships because in this way we can learn best practices to replicate such initiatives in other countries, or other industries. Through successful collaborations, we know better how to address some of the barriers usually put forward by the industry on how to avoid the adoption of cleaner technologies.

Perspectives