The design of emission control areas (ECAs), including ECA width and sulfur limits, plays a central role in reducing sulfur emissions from shipping. To promote sustainable shipping, we investigate an ECA design problem that considers the response of liner shipping companies to ECA designs. We propose a mathematical programming model from the regulator’s perspective to optimize the ECA width and sulfur limit, with the aim of minimizing the total sulfur emissions. Embedded within this regulator’s model, we develop an internal model from the shipping liner’s perspective to determine the detoured voyage, sailing speed, and cargo transport volume with the aim of maximizing the liner’s profit. Then, we develop a tailored hybrid algorithm to solve the proposed models based on the variable neighborhood search meta-heuristic and a proposition. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology through extensive numerical experiments and conduct sensitivity analyses to investigate the effect of important ECA design parameters on the final performance. The proposed methodology is then extended to incorporate heterogeneous settings for sulfur limits, which can help regulators to improve ECA design in the future.
The Nordic countries are ranked among the most gender equal countries worldwide. Equality, political, and civil rights, leading to the high participation of women in the workforce, have paved the way for this egalitarian view. However, women remain the minority in managerial positions in general, and they are also strongly underrepresented in many male‐dominated sectors of the blue economy. The aim of this article is to introduce and discuss gender equality in the blue economy, and to assess the status of gender research in the Nordic context. To achieve this, a purposive interdisciplinary literature review resulted in three encompassing themes on how women’s participation is hindered, overlooked, and undervalued. Using these themes as an analytical lens, we propose that the underlying mechanisms are similar within fisheries, aquaculture, and maritime transportation in how they affect women’s participation. Still, there is a lack of statistics and research within parts of the blue sector. To move forward, there needs to be a shift in focus from policy to practice. One starting point could be to implement current knowledge, e.g., regarding workplace design and tailoring equipment to fit a diverse workforce. We call for scaling up best practices and evaluating policy performance and effectiveness. These are prerequisites for sustainable recruitment and retention of the blue sector workforce and the only way forward for countries aspiring to be truly gender equal.
The regionalization process promoted by the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) enabled the formulation of a new governance arrangement at the sub-national regional level of the Northern Adriatic Sea (NAS). Given the potential for dominating narratives to foster simplified solutions for fishery management, the article sought to analyze discourse formations across Italian Regional Fishery Departments (RFDs) of the NAS. A discourse analysis based on the Discursive Agency Approach (DAA) delineated the discursive strategies, while a weak vs strong sustainability narrative was adopted to broadly group stakeholders into discourse coalitions. The results showed the presence of a dominating narrative in RFD settings, prioritizing the economic growth of the fishery sector - particularly the trawling industry - over current environmental concerns. The study points to a possibly increasing dominance of weak sustainability narratives in the Italian NAS and invites for stakeholders' representation to significantly broaden and diversify, enabling the development of multifaceted solutions to the NAS crisis.
Fishing and sand mining in Cambodia may not appear to have much in common. However, digging deeper reveals important parallels. Both fishing and sand mining support livelihoods and are connected to a limited natural resource. Meanwhile, they are both typified by precarious livelihoods, on the one hand, and overexploitation, on the other. In bringing these two topics together, the paper combines empirical qualitative research from two separate studies conducted by the co-authors in Cambodia, one in coastal fishing villages and another in the sand mining industry along the Mekong River. We argue that the interplay between fishing and sand mining has paradoxical impacts on livelihoods, supporting one group while undermining another. Using a precarity analysis lens, we show how an unconventional, and largely invisible frontier of natural resource exploitation—sand mining—is intertwined with fisheries, and expands our understanding of the relationship between precarious labour, environmental change, and livelihoods.
This paper presents a detailed risk assessment framework tailored for retrofitting ship structures towards eco-friendliness. Addressing a critical gap in current research, it proposes a comprehensive strategy integrating technical, environmental, economic, and regulatory considerations. The framework, grounded in the Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) approach, adeptly combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to assess the feasibility and impact of retrofitting technologies. A case study on ferry electrification, highlighting options like fully electric and hybrid propulsion systems, illustrates the application of this framework. Fully Electric Systems pose challenges such as ensuring ample battery capacity and establishing the requisite charging infrastructure, despite offering significant emission reductions. Hybrid systems present a flexible alternative, balancing electric operation with conventional fuel to reduce emissions without compromising range. This study emphasizes a holistic risk mitigation strategy, aligning advanced technological applications with environmental and economic viability within a strict regulatory context. It advocates for specific risk control measures that refine retrofitting practices, guiding the maritime industry towards a more sustainable future within an evolving technological and regulatory landscape.
Port clusters are expected to play a significant role in the transition towards a circular economy, both at the level of facilitating regional and global transport within circular production chains, as well as hosting circular activities in port areas. There is strong evidence that significant investments in the circular economy (CE) are being made in port areas, albeit without much knowledge on their impacts. To ensure an efficient use of port resources in view of this transition, these impacts should be adequately monitored. Research on circular economy indicators for ports is still in an exploratory stage, characterized by an absence of in-depth research on the development of port-related circular economy indicators. This paper focuses on the development of a comprehensive set of relevant and feasible CE indicators, which aim to support port managing bodies (PMBs) as well as port stakeholders to monitor the CE transition taking place. Through multimethod qualitative research, including content analysis, focus groups, a gap analysis and a qualitative survey, an actionable list of CE 12 indicators for ports was developed. Seven of which are highly feasible and five of which have medium feasibility in terms of stakeholder relevance and ease of implementation. Findings related to (1) the overall limited CE ambition levels of PMBs and (2) the difference in the values of some indicators for different port typologies are also discussed. The value of this study for practitioners lies in providing them with an actionable set of KPIs which can support their efforts and communication related to their CE transition.
Reverse Logistics (RL) of end-of-use/end-of-life products has become a vital part of circular economy practices for manufacturers. However, significant quantities of resources are still landfilled instead of being recovered. With mounting pressure on businesses to address the sustainability crises (resources, climate change, waste, toxicity) on account of the take-make-dispose-based linear economy, companies today realise the importance of RL but face several barriers to implementing it, including a lack of knowledge. Although several studies have investigated different aspects of RL in various industries in different country settings, less attention has been devoted to developing a systematic and holistic approach for designing and implementing RL. To address these gaps, this paper reviews 116 scholarly articles published between 2011 and 2021 to identify attributes related to the design and implementation of RL systems. Based on a systematic literature review, a conceptual framework is presented covering the key activities, drivers and barriers, stakeholder engagement and performance management in RL. Such a framework can support companies evaluate different approaches and strategies, as well as the opportunities and challenges of designing and implementing RL and transitioning towards a Circular Economy.
Most regulatory tools for low-carbon transition are jurisdiction-specific, respecting the principle of national sovereignty. Although possibly locally successful, they typically capture only scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Value chains-related (scope 3) emissions remain largely unregulated. This is problematic, as global value chains are commonly organized across multiple jurisdictions with different climate policy ambitions. Products are often produced at different location than where they are consumed, and production-related emissions are transferred with the products. These emissions embedded in imported products amount to large volumes (e.g. in the EU estimated to about 30% of member state’s national emissions). This chapter gathers the scientific evidence on upstream scope 3 emissions and discusses the available regulatory toolbox for reducing those. Both private and public regulatory tools are represented as well as soft and hard regulatory tools, and modifications between those categories. The interactions between the various types of regulation are discussed with the aim to identify possible synergies and conflicts. The chapter takes the EU as its starting point and draws in examples from other jurisdictions where relevant.
Hydrogen can be key in the energy system transition. We investigate the role of offshore hydrogen generation in a future integrated energy system. By performing energy system optimisation in a model application of the Northern-central European energy system and the North Sea offshore grid towards 2050, we find that offshore hydrogen generation may likely only play a limited role, and that offshore wind energy has higher value when sent to shore in the form of electricity. Forcing all hydrogen generation offshore would lead to increased energy system costs. Under the assumed scenario conditions, which result in deep decarbonisatiton of the energy system towards 2050, hydrogen generation – both onshore and offshore – follows solar PV generation patterns. Combined with hydrogen storage, this is the most cost-effective solution to satisfy future hydrogen demand. Overall, we find that the role of future offshore hydrogen generation should not simply be derived from minimising costs for the offshore sub-system, but by also considering the economic value that such generation would create for the whole integrated energy system. We find as a no-regret option to enable and promote the integration of offshore wind in onshore energy markets via electrical connections.