CLIMMS – Climate change mitigation in the maritime sector

With the IMO decision (2018) to reduce maritime GHG emissions by 50%, identifying, designing, and implementing cost efficient measures that deliver the required reductions in real seaway operations becomes a key priority for naval architects, shipbuilders, and owners. To this end, a robust understanding of the actual and complete climate impacts associated with different abatement measures and their combinations into different pathways for the transformation of the global fleet is required. Achieving this requires a multidisciplinary approach combining state of the art competence in both naval architecture & maritime engineering, life cycle assessment, and climate science. First, a rigorous understanding of the many different technological and operational measures options, as offered by the field of naval architecture & maritime engineering, is pivotal as it provides the core building blocks for any further assessments. Second, it is paramount to acknowledge the importance of assessing options across the whole life cycle. In particular, it is essential to recognize the lessons from climate change mitigation efforts on road transport, in that many options that reduce direct emissions may shift emissions to other parts in the value chain. Third, the actual climate and environmental impacts of emissions are not only influenced by technological factors, but also by climatic and ecological conditions, which may vary regionally.This project takes an inter-disciplinary approach combining methods from life cycle assessment, maritime engineering and climate science, to further-develop our understanding of the implications of various mitigation options and scenarios within the maritime sector.