In a simple answer to rising fuel prices and also in order to cut emissions, the world's shipping industry is cutting the speed of its ships.The world's merchant fleet transports 90% of its traded goods and also accounts for 5% of its total CO2 emissions.
Faced with a 70% spike in the cost of fuel last year, ship owners have decided to simply reduce speed in order to save fuel and also to cut greenhouse gas emissions, both at the same time. It is estimated that reducing speed by as little as 10% can lead to a 25% reduction in fuel use.
Shipping was excluded from the U N's Kyoto Protocol to slow climate change, but many nations want the industry to be made accountable for its impact on the environment in the successor to Kyoto, in 2012.
Slowing down has led to sufficient savings in terms of fuel costs to offset extra operating costs, charter costs and interest costs of longer voyages. But such action requires careful planning and is presently suitable only on certain routes.
Other ways being explored by shipowners to save fuel include using weather forecasts to pick optimum routes for vessel performance, proper maintenance of vessels and to improve engine efficiency. Ship efficiency is extremely important as the fuel bill for a big container ship adds up to a huge $900 million over an average lifespan of 25 years.
It is expected that engineers will now come up with new and more efficient engines which may be slower, instead of trying to get fleet owners to operate existing high speed engines at lower speeds.