| dc.description.abstract | Energy efficiency is a key strategy to address the issue of climate change. Operational
measures that increase energy efficiency are widely used in shipping, but there is evidence
of a gap between the actual implementation level and what would be optimal. This
is dubbed the energy efficiency gap. This paper aims to examine which barriers are
responsible for the energy efficiency gap in deep-sea shipping and how policy intervention
can mitigate it.
Contributing to the literature on operational energy efficiency measures in shipping, we
look to former studies and synthesize former research results to give a comprehensive
overview of the subject. Further, we contribute to the literature by analyzing four existing
and potential policy regulations and investigating their likely effect on the industry and
the energy efficiency gap. This will give a firm foundation for advancing knowledge,
facilitating theory development, providing a unifying status check on operational measures,
and how policy instruments can affect the uptake of these measures. Our analysis also
identifies areas where the current and proposed industry regulations seem insufficient to
drive change and where other or stricter policy instruments may be required.
Our findings suggest that split incentives and imperfect information are the main barriers to
closing the energy efficiency gap for operational measures in shipping. Policy instruments
can help facilitate the uptake of these measures if designed correctly. However, our
findings suggest that none of the four regulations addressed in this thesis are likely to
solve the problem with a lack of reliable information. Further, MBMs can make monetary
savings from reduced emissions more substantial than today and give incentives to reduce
emissions. However, contractual clauses and the presence of other market barriers can
limit the MBMs effect on vessels’ behavior. Consequently, to significantly reduce the
emissions from shipping, we argue that the industry should be focusing on finding ways to
improve the quality of information about vessels’ performance regarding energy efficiency
and on exploring new contractual structures.
Keywords – Sustainable shipping, energy efficiency, operational measures, IMO, GHG,
operational efficiency. | en_US |
