Sea-Intelligence noted the stark contrast between the consistent decline in CO2 emissions from 2018 to 2023 and the unprecedented spike in 2024.
It said that from 2018-2023, the container vessels had consistently been reducing their emissions, despite growth in container volumes, with emissions, on average, declining by -4.4% at an annual average.
[Source: Sea-Intelligence]
"If, purely hypothetically, we assumed there was never a Red Sea crisis and that the container lines would again in 2024 have reduced their total emissions by 4.4%, this would have led to total emissions of 34.7 million tons in 2024," Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence, said.
"Instead, the reported reality was emissions of 52.7 million tons."
The report noted that assuming that the primary cause of the emissions increase in 2024 is due to the round-Africa routing, then the actions of the Houthis have caused an "added level of CO2 emissions in 2024 related to container shipping of 18 million tons."
"This is essentially the same as the carbon emissions from the country of Cambodia," Sea-Intelligence added.
The report noted that the Red Sea crisis has, however, not really had a measurable impact on other shipping segments than container shipping, as no major increase is recorded in 2024 for these segments.
