Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping
Emissions of exhaust gases and particles from oceangoing ships are a significant and growing contributor to the total emissions from the transportation sector. We present an assessment of the contribution of gaseous and particulate emissions from oceangoing shipping to anthropogenic emissions and ai...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2010
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797061120401342464 |
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| author | Eyring, V Isaksen, I Berntsen, T Collins, W Corbett, J Endresen, O Grainger, R Moldanova, J Schlager, H Stevenson, D |
| author_facet | Eyring, V Isaksen, I Berntsen, T Collins, W Corbett, J Endresen, O Grainger, R Moldanova, J Schlager, H Stevenson, D |
| author_sort | Eyring, V |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Emissions of exhaust gases and particles from oceangoing ships are a significant and growing contributor to the total emissions from the transportation sector. We present an assessment of the contribution of gaseous and particulate emissions from oceangoing shipping to anthropogenic emissions and air quality. We also assess the degradation in human health and climate change created by these emissions. Regulating ship emissions requires comprehensive knowledge of current fuel consumption and emissions, understanding of their impact on atmospheric composition and climate, and projections of potential future evolutions and mitigation options. Nearly 70% of ship emissions occur within 400 km of coastlines, causing air quality problems through the formation of ground-level ozone, sulphur emissions and particulate matter in coastal areas and harbours with heavy traffic. Furthermore, ozone and aerosol precursor emissions as well as their derivative species from ships may be transported into the atmosphere over several hundreds of kilometres, and thus contribute to air quality problems further inland, even though they are emitted at sea. In addition, ship emissions impact climate. Recent studies indicate that the cooling due to altered clouds far outweighs the warming effects from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) or ozone from shipping, overall causing a negative present-day radiative forcing (RF). Current efforts to reduce sulphur and other pollutants from shipping may modify this. However, given the short residence time of sulphate compared to CO₂, the climate response from sulphate is of the order decades while that of CO₂ is centuries. The climate trade-off between positive and negative readiative forcing is still a topic of scientific research, but from what is currently known, a simple cancellation of global mean forcing components is potentially inappropriate and a more comprehensive assessment metric is required. The CO₂ equivalent emissions using the global temperature change potential (GTP) metric indicate that after 50 years the net global mean effect of current emissions is close to zero through cancellation of warming by CO₂ and cooling by sulphate and nitrogen oxides. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:26:29Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:2f90c7ea-fe07-444c-b4d3-fde2abd84c22 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:26:29Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:2f90c7ea-fe07-444c-b4d3-fde2abd84c222022-03-26T12:56:09ZTransport impacts on atmosphere and climate: ShippingJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2f90c7ea-fe07-444c-b4d3-fde2abd84c22TransportPhysicsClimate systems and policyEnvironmentAtmospheric,Oceanic,and Planetary physicsEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetElsevier2010Eyring, VIsaksen, IBerntsen, TCollins, WCorbett, JEndresen, OGrainger, RMoldanova, JSchlager, HStevenson, DEmissions of exhaust gases and particles from oceangoing ships are a significant and growing contributor to the total emissions from the transportation sector. We present an assessment of the contribution of gaseous and particulate emissions from oceangoing shipping to anthropogenic emissions and air quality. We also assess the degradation in human health and climate change created by these emissions. Regulating ship emissions requires comprehensive knowledge of current fuel consumption and emissions, understanding of their impact on atmospheric composition and climate, and projections of potential future evolutions and mitigation options. Nearly 70% of ship emissions occur within 400 km of coastlines, causing air quality problems through the formation of ground-level ozone, sulphur emissions and particulate matter in coastal areas and harbours with heavy traffic. Furthermore, ozone and aerosol precursor emissions as well as their derivative species from ships may be transported into the atmosphere over several hundreds of kilometres, and thus contribute to air quality problems further inland, even though they are emitted at sea. In addition, ship emissions impact climate. Recent studies indicate that the cooling due to altered clouds far outweighs the warming effects from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) or ozone from shipping, overall causing a negative present-day radiative forcing (RF). Current efforts to reduce sulphur and other pollutants from shipping may modify this. However, given the short residence time of sulphate compared to CO₂, the climate response from sulphate is of the order decades while that of CO₂ is centuries. The climate trade-off between positive and negative readiative forcing is still a topic of scientific research, but from what is currently known, a simple cancellation of global mean forcing components is potentially inappropriate and a more comprehensive assessment metric is required. The CO₂ equivalent emissions using the global temperature change potential (GTP) metric indicate that after 50 years the net global mean effect of current emissions is close to zero through cancellation of warming by CO₂ and cooling by sulphate and nitrogen oxides. |
| spellingShingle | Transport Physics Climate systems and policy Environment Atmospheric,Oceanic,and Planetary physics Eyring, V Isaksen, I Berntsen, T Collins, W Corbett, J Endresen, O Grainger, R Moldanova, J Schlager, H Stevenson, D Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title | Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title_full | Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title_fullStr | Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title_short | Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping |
| title_sort | transport impacts on atmosphere and climate shipping |
| topic | Transport Physics Climate systems and policy Environment Atmospheric,Oceanic,and Planetary physics |
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