Comparing Fuel Consumption, CO₂ and Other Emissions from International Shipping and Aircraft: A Summary of Recent Research Findings

Regulating transport emissions requires comprehensive knowledge of the present day fuel consumption and emissions, their potential future evolutions, and mitigation options. Recent studies by the German Aerospace Center DLR and by the University of Delaware in the United States of America (USA) reveal converging estimates of current ship emissions and suggest that shipping emitted around 800 Tg CO₂ and contributed around 2.7% to all anthropogenic CO₂ emissions in 2000. Given uncertainties in all emission inventories, these figures should be considered our best estimates within a bounded range of 600 to 900 Tg of CO₂ per year. Our research concludes that CO₂ emissions from shipping are of the same order as published CO₂ estimates for aviation.