International transportation constitutes one of the biggest challenges in limiting the CO2 emission in the world:
It is technically hard to find serious alternatives to fossil fuels, and due to the international nature it is very difficult to regulate the CO2 emission of intercontinental trade.
Moreover, it is hard to motivate companies to pay for a cleaner transportation since the transportation is not visible to end customers and therefore cannot justify a higher cost.
Hence, optimization may be one of the few options for limiting the CO2 emission of international trade.
In the present project we will develop tools to optimizing containerized liner shipping, both through improved network design, taking vessel sharing agreements into account, and through better cargo mix, making it possible to fit more containers on board a vessel.
Taking into account that leading liner shipping companies have a CO2 emission comparable to that of Denmark, saving just a few percent of energy may have a substantial impact.
As a by-product, optimizing liner shipping may lead to cheaper freight rates, stimulating the move of land transportation to the more energy-efficient sea transportation.
The project is funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research and EUDP. It runs for 4 years from January 2014 to December 2017.