Environmental sustainability of port development and operations (shipping)

This research paper presented key findings through analysing and evaluating the effectiveness of environmentally sustainable initiatives that were available to mitigate the impact of ship emissions calling in Singapore. Although the three mitigation methods – Speed Reduction, Fuel Switch, and Cold Ironing, may be successfully introduced and implemented in other parts of the world, they are not suitable for Singapore. Firstly, with Singapore’s busy port, ships are sailing at reduced speeds for navigational safety. A further speed reduction can potentially lead to hazards such as overcrowding in Singapore waters. Secondly, cold ironing is a costly option, given that it does not necessarily reduce ship emissions. The underlying reason is due to 95% of Singapore’s electricity being generated from natural gas. Lastly, voluntary initiatives such as the MPA Green Port Programme to encourage visiting ships to conduct fuel switch operations, have achieved limited success. From the results of our extensive interviews with the shipping lines and industry professionals, we learnt that for companies to participate in voluntary initiatives, it must make business sense and should not see a significant erosion of business profitability and/or competitiveness. Initiatives that erode significant profitability and/or competitiveness will often be deemed as unattractive no matter how much social and environmental benefits it may bring. Given the size of Singapore, any form of regulations or policies to reduce ship emissions in Singapore waters will achieve limited success as pollutants emitted from ships in neighbouring waters can be carried by wind to Singapore quickly. Moreover, Singapore unilaterally introducing and implementing regulations or policies will risk her losing her attractiveness and competitiveness as a port. Singapore cannot act alone to reduce ship emission in her waters. The countries in the region must collaborate and act together through collective efforts to achieve effective results. However, the countries in the region are in different developing stages and hence environmental protection is not a priority yet. Therefore, in the short to medium term, we are unlikely to see any collective efforts to address ship emission in port. Despite the challenges ahead, Singapore still has the potential to make her difference. Singapore should continue to actively bolster her green shipping services and entice more ships to switch to LNG. As more ships that visit Singapore are fuelled by LNG, there are tremendous potential for emissions in Singapore and in the region to be reduced. In the longer term, as the region’s economies pick up and societies progresses, environmental protection may gain importance and Singapore can push ahead for ECA.Bachelor of Science (Maritime Studies