Environmental Regulations in Shipping: Interactions and Side Effects

The shipping sector progressively faces stricter environmental regulations. Several technical and operational measures are available to ship owners and operators in order to comply with these regulations. While some measures are successful in reducing emissions of a pollutant, they may increase emissions of other pollutants. In addition, there may be interactions between regulations on environmental impacts on sea and air. In some other cases, despite the success of these measures in reducing environmental footprints of ships, the environmental problem may shift elsewhere in the life cycle. Therefore, there may be a trade-off between different environmental controls and, in a broader context, a trade-off between environmental impacts at a life stage and overall environmental goals. Although several studies focus on addressing individual regulations, few acknowledge such interactions. This study aims at highlighting the side effects of different measures to address environmental regulations.