Environmental Leader

As the world seeks a consensus on cutting maritime emissions, an Iranian tanker company is making concrete promises to reduce its own emissions and fuel use.

National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) aims to cut energy use 28 percent, to be achieved by improvements in operational efficiency, fleet management, traffic control, cargo handling and energy efficiency, reports Maritime Global Net.

The move comes amidst a backdrop of emerging national and regional emissions proposals, some of them controversial. For instance, as the Environmental Protection Agency moves to regulate shipping emissions, shippers in the Great Lakes region say the effort will cost them tens of millions of dollars a year, reports The Hill.

The European Union has been considering requiring its shipping sector cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels over the next decade. The cuts might be linked to a tax on fuel.

NITC says it will achieve its 28 percent cut via the following methods:

- voluntary speed reduction – 10 percent reduction

- reduced hull roughness -  5 percent

- speed optimisation – 5 percent

- reduced propeller roughness – 3 percent

- propeller vortex loss recovery -  3 percent

- main engine fine tuning – 2 percent

To maintain the savings, the company plans to conduct underwater and hull inspections every four months. NITC, which has 42 oceangoing crude oil tankers, is working with Oslo-based Carbon Limits, an international climate change consultant.

The company is taking on an additional 22 tankers through 2013.

The international shipping industry, leary of the prospect of varying national and regional regulations on ship emissions, wants the United Nations to forge a set of rules that spell out the expectations for maximum emissions. The World Shipping Council, which represents 29 maritime shipping companies, said it hopes that the UN negotiates a global shipping emissions position as it works on carbon emissions at large.

Shipping emissions are responsible for more than half of the transport-induced changes in the ozone in various regions, according to a new report that estimates the impact of road, aircraft and shipping emissions on the Earth’s atmosphere.