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Sustainable Shipping: Levers of Change

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Listed:
  • Andreas Papandreou
  • Phoebe Koundouri
  • Lydia Papadaki

Abstract

Sustainable shipping refers to the broad set of challenges, nature of governance rules and regulations, patterns of management and corporate behaviors and aims, engagement of stakeholders, and forms of industrial activity that should come to define a marine transport industry that is shaped by the broader societal goals of sustainable development. This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of the marine transport industry, its role and relevance in sustainable development and the kinds of changes that are needed for shipping to be sustainable. The focus is mostly on the environmental dimension of sustainable development. As a sector, and for reasons that have to do with the special nature of its international governance that partly falls outside the confines of national jurisdictions, shipping may have been a late comer to some of the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. After presenting some recent economic trends of the sector and their potential implications for sustainability the chapter will present some environmental pressures that are related to shipping and will focus on two particular sustainability challenges confronted by maritime transport: the need to drastically reduce sulfur emissions and the even more demanding challenge to mitigate CO2 emissions. Before concluding, the penultimate section will briefly present some sustainability initiatives already under way.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Papandreou & Phoebe Koundouri & Lydia Papadaki, 2020. "Sustainable Shipping: Levers of Change," DEOS Working Papers 2025, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:aue:wpaper:2025
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    File URL: http://wpa.deos.aueb.gr/docs/Sustainable.shipping.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Halff, Antoine & Younes, Lara & Boersma, Tim, 2019. "The likely implications of the new IMO standards on the shipping industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 277-286.
    2. Michael Traut & Alice Larkin & Kevin Anderson & Christophe McGlade & Maria Sharmina & Tristan Smith, 2018. "CO2 abatement goals for international shipping," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(8), pages 1066-1075, September.
    3. Michael Maloni & Jomon Aliyas Paul & David M Gligor, 2013. "Slow steaming impacts on ocean carriers and shippers," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 15(2), pages 151-171, June.
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    1. Olympia Nisiforou & Louisa Marie Shakou & Afroditi Magou & Alexandros G. Charalambides, 2022. "A Roadmap towards the Decarbonization of Shipping: A Participatory Approach in Cyprus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-27, February.

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    Keywords

    Sustainable shipping; maritime transport; CO2 emissions mitigation; EU ETS;
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