News / Shippers risk inflated Scope 3 emissions if they ignore voyage-level data

© David Watmough

Shippers’ and forwarders’ over-reliance on trade lane averages is leading to an over-reporting of Scope 3 emissions, despite some of the leading carriers now being ahead of targets they set to reduce their environmental impact.

Ocean Score’s Scope 3 Asia-North Europe report found that by looking at averages, carbon emissions had risen from 4.14 grams of CO2 per tonne kilometre (gCO2km) in January to 5.43 gCO2km in July, having hit a June high of 5.48 gCO2km on the Asia-North Europe trade.

Ocean Score’s head of cargo solution Thomas Smith said, however, that vessel selection can have a “huge” difference when it comes to long-haul trades, stating that “well-utilised, fuel-efficient ships can emit far less per container than one that sails faster or under-utilised”.

Noting “vessel selection matters”, Mr Smith pointed to the findings on vessel distribution, which not only indicated that 65% of vessels emitted less than 5 gCO2km, but of the 400 sailings measured, the highest number sailed in the 3-4 gCO2km category.

The averages were being pulled up by a relatively low number of sailings (3.5%) surpassing 10 gCO2km, alongside 10% hitting 7 gCO2km, and 14% emitting 5.5-7 gCO2km, the report suggested that this last group were linked to under-utilisation and schedule recovery.

Mr Smith continued: “Performance always follows a trend, and with accurate voyage-level data, you can see those patterns, choose the most efficient vessels, and make forward-looking, best-possible decisions.

“That way, Scope 3 management becomes more than reporting: it is about cutting emissions, building greener freight services that attract more customers, and ultimately improving the bottom line.”

While stressing that “of course, shippers and forwarders can’t control how a carrier runs their voyages,” Mr Smith and the report suggested that if shippers and forwarders amended the way that they were collecting data they could hit some easy wins on their sustainability path.

OOCL (14% at 4.25 gCO2km) and MSC (18% at 4.57 gCO2kg) were highlighted as carriers that were able to match energy efficiency with scale, while HMM (3% at 4.18 gCO2km) and ONE 7% at 3.69 gCO2km) recorded the lowest levels on Asia-North Europe sailings.

If “steering volume to these operators [OOCL, MSC] can materially cut emissions exposure without limiting service options,” APL (3% at 5.45 gCO2km) and Hapag-Lloyd (4% at 5.22 gCO2km) may be ones to miss.

Ocean Score’s senior data analyst Eduardo Ramos said: “MSC and OOCL demonstrate consistency, keeping most voyages within an efficient band, while others show greater variability that can create instability when tallying Scope 3 Emissions.

“For shippers and forwarders, this shows the power of voyage-level data. By looking beyond averages and into distributions, businesses can steer volume toward carriers that show consistency and lower spreads in intensities.”