Carbon emission allocation of Ro-Pax ferry transport and the application for ferry companies

Sammanfattning: The EU has set up the target of cutting GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and becoming climateneutral by 2050. Accordingly, the IMO has launched initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions per transportwork by at least 40% by 2030, however the CO2 emissions generated from the ferry operations arecontinuously increasing. Although the research focussing on carbon emission reduction technology isgrowing as well, the emission allocation, the prerequisite for emission measuring and reporting as wellas evaluating emission reduction effects, is still an area that hasn’t been explored in depth especiallyfor the ferry industry. This study explores and evaluates the way of allocating CO2 emissions betweenthe passenger and freight for Ro-Pax ferry. Firstly, the emission allocation methods from differentsectors and modes of transportation have been reviewed, revised and developed into the allocationmethods suitable for Ro-Pax transport. Afterwards, the case study of ferry companies with part or all ofthe routes in the Baltic Sea has been carried out to compare and evaluate the performance of differentemission allocation methods. The study suggests that the weight allocation method has the tendencyto assign large amounts of carbon emissions to the freight, while the passenger accounts for moreemissions when applying area, volume and alternative production methods. Furthermore, the practiceshows that foot passengers could contribute to CO2 emission reduction by choosing ferry travel insteadof the airplane, and the car passengers could generate less CO2 emission by sharing the car withothers. The study provides valuable insights for decision makers, standard setters and ferry companies,and could be the solid groundwork for further research on carbon emission allocation for other transportmodes or deeper exploration of a specific allocation method.