0512 Environmental impacts of intermodal freight transport

This study is an input to the Northern Maritime Corridor on the environmental issues of establishing two new short sea cargo routes: 1) between Mid-Norway and Rosyth and 2) between Kristiansand and Eemshaven. The objective of this study is to compare different cargo routes with different means of transport, and different technologies (different speeds). Environmental impacts that are included in this study are divided into two parts: 1) energy consumption measured in KW/h and 2) emissions to air that is a direct result of the energy consumption. The emissions to air that are included are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, sulphur (SO2) emissions and particles (PM).

The planned fast conventional ferry service (23 knots) between Mid-Norway and Rosyth have higher emissions as compared to other means of transport. The planned fast conventional ferry service (28 knots) between Kristiansand and Eemshaven will also have relatively high emissions.

If this service is running at 18 knots instead it will have less emission than the base case (transport via Oslo Kiel). This is both with Norwegian and Danish electricity mix (including coal-generated power etc.). If the Mid-Norway and Rosyth services were running at a at a speed of 18 knots instead of 23/29knots, the differences between the different routes are significantly reduced, and the differences between the routes that goes via Rosyth and the base case becomes so small that it is not significant.

New and strict emission targets for road transport were put into place last year and even stricter targets will emerge. As we see in this report, emissions from the fast conventional RoRo fleet today cannot compete with emissions from road in the multi modal transport chains that we have investigated. New regulations for shipping for sulphur content in fuel and NOx emissions will reduce the future shipping emissions. We believe that the new regulations for the shipping industry will have an impact but not in the short run, due to much higher average age in the RoRo fleet than in the long distance HGV fleet.