Zero Emissions in Freight: Marine Vessels

Marine vessels are among the largest contributors of cancer-causing pollutants in seaports and inland waterways. For MFN, marine vessels include but are not limited to:

Ships and boats that operate along our coastlines and in our lakes
Ocean-going vessels (OGVs)
Lakers
Harbor craft
Tugboats
Towboats/pushboats, etc.

Maritime Freight within the United States operates along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico coasts, as well as on inland waterways like rivers and tributaries that serve the Great Lakes, all of which support the global freight system. Frontline workers and communities are the most impacted by the devastating emissions from this sector.

Around 90% of goods are transported by sea, meaning that impacts from this sector go well beyond the United States. The global freight system is a complex, interconnected web, and low-income communities across the globe are living at the frontlines of its devastating environmental and public health impacts. The same ocean-going vessels that come into US seaports like Los Angeles, Savannah, Newark, and Houston are also affecting communities around the globe. Because of the global impacts, MFN knows that solutions to marine vessel pollution need to prioritize local-to-state-to-national-to-global organizing efforts.

A landscape of ocean on an overcast day in Southern California. 20+ colorful kayaks are in the distance and riders hold a large orange sign reading "Zero Emissions Now." There is a large oil tanker and other marine vessels in the background.

MFN’s Demands on Marine Vessels

Maritime freight sector emissions have a devastating public health impact, which includes respiratory, cardiovascular, lung cancer, impaired fertility outcomes, and premature mortality. Because of the risk to public health, the environment, and climate MFN demands the following to begin to move towards zero emission solutions for marine vessel emissions:

Harbor Craft Regulation that requires zero emissions across all categories of harbor craft, including tugboats, long-haul ferries, workboats, and service vessels.
Oceangoing Vessels At-Berth Regulation increases emissions reductions from ocean-going vessels (“vessels”) while they are docked.
Setting a Tier 5 zero-emission standard and timeline that will require 100% of new marine engines to be zero-emission.
Require all remanufactured marine diesel engines to meet the Tier 4 standard.
Retire any marine engines that do not meet the zero-emission standard.
Provide grants for the installation of shore power infrastructure and emission capture systems.
Increased air monitoring to better baseline emissions and account for the increases or reductions in emissions. Monitoring must be tied to enforcement.

Additional Marine Vessel Recommendations

Slow Steaming

Reduction in the speed of the vessel

Reducing ship speed by 10% would lead to a 13% reduction in ship emissions

Wind

Soft sails, fixed wings, rotors, kites and conventional wind turbines

2019 study showed reductions in emissions of almost 50% with the addition of wind technology to a ship

Electrification

Battery operated vessels for voyage ranges of less than 200 nautical miles

There are substantial opportunities to use direct electrification for routes that are close to shore and often close to communities.

Air Pollution Control Technologies

Technologies that can reduce air pollution from shipping

The technologies that can be used to reduce air pollution from shipping include switching to low-sulfur fuel oil, scrubbers (these are after-treatment devices which remove sulfur from the emissions of ships, but often create water pollution which is later dumped), and selective catalytic reduction technologies which can reduce NOx emissions by up to 75%