Mark Sisson highlights the increasing amount of focus on ship emissions in today's industry, and the options available to operators in a more environment-conscious age.
In the first few decades after the Ideal X ushered in the container shipping age with its first voyage in 1956, emissions from ships and container terminals were not a big concern.
This began to change in the 1990s and early 2000s, as evidence mounted that communities living near container terminals were breathing in air that contained far more pollutants than the regional averages.
In 2002, the Port of Los Angeles lost a lawsuit for lack of mitigation measures regarding the expanded China Shipping Terminal. As a result of this event, the shore power era for containerships was born.
Emissions typically fall into two broad categories: greenhouse gas or local health risk. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emission.