Recent improvements in technology for ship design have led to slightly improved technical efficiency in new ships.

But the real world performance of container shipping has not increased.

Despite improvements in ‘technical efficiency’, EU ships on average are not more efficient in the real world. Among other things, this may be down to sailing faster.

A fall in trade 2023 compared to 2022 meant that calls at European ports fell.

Container ships were responsible for a big chunk of Europe’s shipping emissions. Oil tankers and LNG carriers moving fossil fuels around were also responsible for a big slice of shipping emissions.

MSC continues to be Europe’s biggest shipping polluter.

The three most polluting ships in Europe in 2023 were ferries. The rest of the top ten were either cruise ships or ferries.

Carnival is the cruise line party that keeps on giving (polluting).