In Europe, CO2 emissions from maritime transport, after the decline coinciding with the global spread of the pandemic of Covid-19, have returned to pre-health crisis levels reaching a new all-time high. This is highlighted by an analysis of Transport & Environment (T&E), the organization environmentalist whose purpose is to promote the reduction the polluting impact of the transport sector, which is disclosed as in 2022 the volume of carbon dioxide emissions generated the services of the shipping industry operating in Europe and 135.5 million tonnes compared to 126.3 million tonnes million tonnes of CO2 in the previous year and compared to 133.7 million tons produced in 2019 before falling to 117.7 million tonnes in 2020 coinciding with the worldwide spread of the pandemic.

Recalling that European maritime operators annually must by law transmit their emission data to the EU, and that in recent years T&E uses this data to evaluate how emissions from shipping in Europe have evolved, The environmental organization has specified that the data obtained from the EU that it published last July do not include those of many operators who have failed to provide data on emissions on time, which means that the total emissions of the European maritime transport are now much higher than those previously reported.

The report also states that the increase in emissions is also due to the fact that in 2022 the number of ships calling at the European ports grew considerably to 12,953 compared to 12,211 ships in 2021, 12,045 ships in 2020 and 12,395 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

T&E's analysis highlights that at the top of the list The continent's largest carbon emitter figure The main containerized shipping companies starting from from MSC, which is a world leader in the sector and which in 2022 emitted over 10.5 million tons of CO2, followed by those of other leading carriers in the sector: CMA CGM (5.4 million tonnes of CO2), Maersk (5.3 million), COSCO (3.8 million) and Hapag-Lloyd (3.3 million).

The document also notes that in 2022 ship emissions from cruising were more than double compared to the year precedent when cruise activity was strongly reduced due to the health crisis. Significant growth is emissions from ships transporting liquefied natural gas, a type of cargo that last year was increased by +60% as Europe was intensifying sanctions on Russian oil, with a consequent boost to LNG imports into Europe by sea.

In first place among the types of ships that in 2022 have produced the largest amount of CO2 emissions are however Container ships left with 37.9 million tons of carbon dioxide carbon followed by bulk carriers with 18.3 million tonnes, oil tankers with 16.7 million, ferries with 13.5 million, from LNG ships with 10.7 million tons, from chemical tankers with 8.7 million, cruise ships with 6.9 million and ships ro-ro with 5.5 million tons.

The analysis also specifies the amount of CO2 emissions produced by ships in European ports, a volume that in 2022 is result of 8.6 million tons, in 2021 of 8.0 million, in the 2020 of 7.5 million and in 2019 of 9.5 million tons.