Voluntary Reporting in Decarbonizing Container Shipping: The Clean Cargo Case

Amandine Godet, George Panagakos and Michael Bruhn Barfod
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Amandine Godet: Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
George Panagakos: Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Michael Bruhn Barfod: Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: Led by the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the EU, the shipping industry struggles to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to align with the Paris Agreement. Clean Cargo, the leading voluntary buyer–supplier forum for sustainability in the cargo shipping industry, developed some years ago a methodology to calculate and report the GHG emissions from containerships. The recently introduced carbon emission requirements by the IMO and EU have reinforced the members’ interest in a new Clean Cargo reporting mechanism that enables a more effective and efficient monitoring of the decarbonization progress. A better understanding of the user needs accompanied by due consideration to the regulatory environment and the technological advances are key to build this new framework. This paper builds on the case of the Clean Cargo initiative to (1) identify the stakeholders’ expectations and motivations for voluntary disclosure of environmental information, and (2) discuss the governance challenges of voluntary initiatives. A questionnaire was designed and deployed to investigate the current uses of Clean Cargo data and the information sharing among different stakeholders. Voluntary schemes can speed up the decarbonization process by proposing standards accepted by all actors of the global value chain. Clean Cargo members envision reporting on absolute GHG emissions per shipment as the way forward.

Keywords: shipping; containership; carbon emissions; reporting framework; buyer–supplier forum; private standard; rating scheme (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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