A new report in to cutting the carbon footprint throughout the marine industry makes the fatal error of lumping powerboats and sailing boats together
Anew industry wide report on de carbonising the marine industry has delivered an intriguing verdict. But behind all the Jargon, what does it actually mean?
In November International Commission of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) released a report entitled Pathways to Carbon Emissions Reduction in In Recreational Boating. ICOMIA is an international trade association responsible which works with national associations such as our own British Marine to provided a more powerful lobbying voice on the world stage. So far, so dull. What they do have is access to a greater amount of data on the industry than anyone else. So when they release a report into how we can de carbonise the industry, then it’s worth looking beneath the jargon and finding out exactly what they are saying.
The wider context of the report is that at present the marine industry contributes 0.1% of global greenhouse gases and the aim of the report is to find a way to further reduce this carbon footprint. As such, the analysis looked across the nine common types of recreational craft (sailing yachts, powerboats, inflatables, inland waterways vessels, personal watercraft, fishing boats, high performance motoryachts and displacement motoryachts and looked at the most suitable and sustainable source of power.
The results are distinctly mixed and at times frustratingly vague. The most obvious conclusion that has been reached is that there is no one size fits all solution throughout the industry – which is far from surprising given the huge variation in the types of boat analysed. Perhaps the most jaw dropping finding was that the average amount of hours a leisure boat is used annually is 35. In the case of sailing yachts, this drops to 24 hours per year.
The other conclusion was that in many cases the most effective way of reducing the carbon footprint in craft that rarely leave the marina was retaining internal combustion engines and seeking more sustainably sourced fuel supplies.
To quote the report: The analysis undertaken concluded that internal combustion engines (ICEs) powered by renewable liquid fuels are suitable candidates to decarbonise privately owned marine leisure craft. These power systems can provide significant global warming potential savings, especially for craft with low utilisation and long lifetimes, as they are highly susceptible to manufacturing an
