- NYK beats Maersk in terms of its green policies in a narrow margin.
- China’s state-run giant Cosco has been branded the line doing less to cut down its carbon emissions.
- Container transport is the most emissions intensive shipping subsector, achieving highest emission reductions.
According to an article published in Splash247, Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) narrowly beat Denmark’s Maersk as the most proactive player in terms of its green policies.
China’s Cosco branded the line
China’s state-run giant Cosco has been branded the line doing very little to cut its carbon footprint, among the largest listed shipping companies in the world.
The report comes from the environmental non-profit and investment research provider CDP. It ranks among 18 of the largest publicly listed shipping companies, representing $62bn of market capitalisation, on business readiness for a low-carbon transition.
Poor rates of disclosure
The report highlights that the shipping sector has poor rates of disclosure – with only five of the 18 companies completing CDP’s 2018 climate change questionnaire, and only four are official supporters of Mark Carney’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The report also noted that board level oversight of climate issues is very low compared to other sectors. A formal climate committee at board level is seen only in three companies.
Container transport – most emissions intensive sector
Yet another interesting highlight from the report is that container transport is the most emissions intensive shipping subsector but has achieved the highest emission reductions across the sub-sectors, on average reducing by 5.3% between 2012 and 2017.
CDP stated that the emissions from the bulk and tanker divisions have piled up, with emission intensities from both sectors increasing 1% and 0.5% on average over the same period. Cosco chose not to comment about this.
