{"id":251021,"date":"2023-07-06T20:58:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T15:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=251021"},"modified":"2023-07-06T20:58:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T15:28:28","slug":"it-will-take-nuclear-energy-for-global-shipping-to-hit-net-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/it-will-take-nuclear-energy-for-global-shipping-to-hit-net-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"It will take nuclear energy for global shipping to hit net zero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cIt will take nuclear energy for global shipping to hit net zero<\/strong>\u201d published in Live Mint <\/strong>on\u00a06th<\/sup> July 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 3 \u2013 Infrastructure, Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>measures needed to achieve net zero in the maritime sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Shipping industry, which consumes about 5% of the world\u2019s oil and emits about 3% of its greenhouse gases, is moving towards a net-zero target.<\/p>\n

How is the shipping industry moving towards a net-zero target?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The International Maritime Organization (IMO),<\/strong> a United Nations body responsible for regulating the maritime industry, is meeting in London to strengthen measures to reduce maritime carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

A draft <\/strong>is being prepared that would commit the maritime sector to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rich countries along with Marshall Islands (operating one of the largest ship registries globally) are also supporting a carbon tax on shipping.<\/p>\n

Whereas, China, a major global exporter, is working to rally developing nations to resist stricter measures on carbon emissions in the shipping industry.<\/p>\n

What are the issues involved with the shipping industry in achieving a net zero?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The size and duration of ships’ journeys make it difficult<\/strong> to adopt the same technologies used in green power plants and cars. Only smaller ferries with short routes have the potential<\/strong> to operate on batteries or solar power.<\/p>\n

Wind power is also unpredictable and scarce to meet the needs <\/strong>of the shipping industry. Even wind-assisted ships currently under construction are unlikely to<\/strong> have a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

This means that there is a need for some sort of fuel for the shipping industry. Out of the various options being explored, nuclear power has the capability to make the shipping industry achieve a net zero.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How is nuclear power a suitable form of energy for the shipping industry?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nuclear energy is already being used in powering numerous military submarines and aircraft carriers.<\/strong> This offers an established zero-carbon solution for the maritime sector.<\/p>\n

Further, nuclear power would not be needed for all the merchant ships. Only about 17,000 large ships are responsible for around 80% of the sector\u2019s greenhouse emissions.<\/p>\n

According to a study,<\/strong> atomic ships were found to cost more by only 19% compared to the conventional vessels.<\/p>\n

This makes them more competitive than other low-carbon fuel options and potentially cheaper than the current diesel-heavy fuel mix used in conventional vessels. However, there are also challenges present with nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges present with adopting nuclear energy in the shipping industry?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nuclear energy faces a significant challenge from the people, especially when it is related to oceans. For example,<\/strong> a protest emerged in Japan during the planned release of wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant into the ocean.<\/p>\n

Further, many countries restrict nuclear power on their territory.\u00a0For instance,\u00a0Italy and Denmark have strong anti-nuclear regulation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, piracy risks for uranium reactors are also present because <\/strong>merchant ships don\u2019t carry the arsenal that military vessels use to deter piracy. There are also issues with the leakage of the reactors<\/strong>, if any accidents happen.<\/p>\n

What can be the way ahead?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There has been adoption of nuclear-powered ships which operate only on main routes between major ports. However, if achieving net-zero emissions in the shipping industry is a priority, nuclear energy needs to be adopted at large scale<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cIt will take nuclear energy for global shipping to hit net zero\u201d published in Live Mint on\u00a06th July 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Infrastructure, Environment Relevance: measures needed to achieve net zero in the maritime sector. News: Shipping industry, which consumes about 5% of the world\u2019s oil and… Continue reading It will take nuclear energy for global shipping to hit net zero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-251021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700317618},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}