The International Association for Ports and Harbours (IAPH) has presented the results of five years’ worth of data from ships registered under the Environmental Ship Index (ESI) scheme.
The scheme, originally designed by the ports of Le Havre, Bremen, Hamburg, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, rewards ships of greater efficiency and environmental performance.
The ESI is a simple but powerful tool for ports to reward ship-owners who’s ships emit less air pollutants than legally required. It enables ports to grant port due discounts for greener ships with rewards typically varying between five and ten percent discount on harbour duties up to 100%.
Through the scheme, a ship’s environmental performance is graded in terms of its emission of air pollutants such as sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2). A scale of 0 to 100 is used, whereby a score of 100 demonstrates exceptional performance.
The IAPH revealed that of the 3,610 ships registered under the ESI, 175 have a score of over 50 and 4 of these ships have obtained the maximum score of 100.
The Port of Antwerp recently stated that it has seen the number of “green” ships calling the port increasing every year, reflecting that in 2012 there were 462 port calls that utilised the ESI discount, with that number rising to 501 in 2014 and again to 671 in the first nine months of 2015.
There is currently a network of 40 established global ports that reward greener ships through the ESI scheme.
