Economic Impact of the Application of the ETS to European Ports: Analysis of Different Scenarios

Javier Vaca-Cabrero (), Nicoletta González-Cancelas, Alberto Camarero-Orive, María Magdalena Esteban-Infantes Corral and Stefano Ricci
Additional contact information
Javier Vaca-Cabrero: Department of Transport, Territorial and Urban Planning Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, C/Porfesor Aranguren 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Nicoletta González-Cancelas: Department of Transport, Territorial and Urban Planning Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, C/Porfesor Aranguren 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Alberto Camarero-Orive: Department of Transport, Territorial and Urban Planning Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, C/Porfesor Aranguren 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
María Magdalena Esteban-Infantes Corral: Ingeniería y Economía del Transporte S.M.E. M.P., S.A. (INECO), P.º de La Habana, 138, 28036 Madrid, Spain
Stefano Ricci: Transport Area, Sapienza Universita di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: The fight against climate change is one of the main global challenges of our time, and the European Union (EU) seeks to achieve climate neutrality and energy transition for the continent by 2050 through various policies. This research studies the economic implications of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) on European ports. By analysing various maritime scenarios, the study assesses how the ETS influences shipping routes, port competitiveness, and overall economic activity. A key finding is that the ETS imposes significant additional costs on shipping companies, which could lead to adjustments in routes and a shift in cargo volumes to ports in regions with less stringent environmental regulations. This could result in job losses in European port communities and reduce the competitiveness of European ports. In addition, the potential for carbon leakage, where shipping activities are simply relocated to regions with fewer emission controls, is explored.

Keywords: ETS; competitiveness; green ports; European ports; route analysis; emissions; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10433/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10433/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10433-:d:1531965

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().