Chapter 10
Sustainable Shipping: Levers of Change
Andreas Papandreou, Phoebe Koundouri, and Lydia Papadaki
Abstract Sustainable shipping refers to the broad set of challenges, nature of
governance rules and regulations, patterns of management and corporate behaviors
and aims, engagement of stakeholders, and forms of industrial activity that should
come to define a marine transport industry that is shaped by the broader societal goals
of sustainable development. This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of the
marine transport industry, its role and relevance in sustainable development, and the
kinds of changes that are needed for shipping to be sustainable. The focus is mostly on
the environmental dimension of sustainable development. As a sector, and for reasons
that have to do with the special nature of its international governance that partly falls
outside the confines of national jurisdictions, shipping may have been a late comer to
some of the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. After presenting some
recent economic trends of the sector and their potential implications for sustainability,
the chapter will present some environmental pressures that are related to shipping
and will focus on two particular sustainability challenges confronted by maritime
transport: the need to drastically reduce sulfur emissions and the even more demanding
challenge to mitigate CO 2 emissions. Before concluding, the penultimate section will
briefly present some sustainability initiatives already under way.
A. Papandreou (*)
Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Greece, Athens, Greece
e-mail: aap@econ.uoa.gr
P. Koundouri
School of Economics and ReSEES Laboratory, Athens University of Economics and Business,
Athens, Greece
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Europe, Paris, France
EIT Climate–KIC Hub Greece, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center, Athens, Greece
ICRE8: International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy, Athens, Greece
L. Papadaki
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Greece, Athens, Greece
EIT Climate–KIC Hub Greece, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center, Athens, Greece
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. Koundouri (ed.), The Ocean of Tomorrow, Environment & Policy 57,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56847-4_10
153
Sustainable Shipping: Levers of Change
Andreas Papandreou, Phoebe Koundouri, and Lydia Papadaki
Abstract Sustainable shipping refers to the broad set of challenges, nature of
governance rules and regulations, patterns of management and corporate behaviors
and aims, engagement of stakeholders, and forms of industrial activity that should
come to define a marine transport industry that is shaped by the broader societal goals
of sustainable development. This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of the
marine transport industry, its role and relevance in sustainable development, and the
kinds of changes that are needed for shipping to be sustainable. The focus is mostly on
the environmental dimension of sustainable development. As a sector, and for reasons
that have to do with the special nature of its international governance that partly falls
outside the confines of national jurisdictions, shipping may have been a late comer to
some of the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. After presenting some
recent economic trends of the sector and their potential implications for sustainability,
the chapter will present some environmental pressures that are related to shipping
and will focus on two particular sustainability challenges confronted by maritime
transport: the need to drastically reduce sulfur emissions and the even more demanding
challenge to mitigate CO 2 emissions. Before concluding, the penultimate section will
briefly present some sustainability initiatives already under way.
A. Papandreou (*)
Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Greece, Athens, Greece
e-mail: aap@econ.uoa.gr
P. Koundouri
School of Economics and ReSEES Laboratory, Athens University of Economics and Business,
Athens, Greece
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Europe, Paris, France
EIT Climate–KIC Hub Greece, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center, Athens, Greece
ICRE8: International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy, Athens, Greece
L. Papadaki
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Greece, Athens, Greece
EIT Climate–KIC Hub Greece, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center, Athens, Greece
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. Koundouri (ed.), The Ocean of Tomorrow, Environment & Policy 57,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56847-4_10
153