Environmental impact of ferries
When I travel, I try to limit my environmental impact. I don't want to refrain from travelling completely, but when I do travel, I tend to favour ground-level transportation over air-transportation, if distances are not too large (e.g., if traveling over-land would take more than three days, I might fly anyway.
A well-filled train usually has a much lower ecological footprint per traveller-kilometer than an æroplane, particularly if the train is hydro-electrical, such as in Sweden. High speed trains and diesel trains are already worse, but still considerably better than flying. But what about ferries? Fuel used by (fast) ferries can be quite dirty. On the other hand, ferries may carry over a thousand travellers, sometimes several thousands.
How does the ecological footprint per traveller of a typical, well-filled ferry compare to the ecological footprint per traveller of an æroplane?
For example, travelling from Stockholm to Warsaw, one might identify four alternatives with a somewhat similar travel class, where all day trains are 2nd class and all overnight accommodation (train or ferry) is with a bed/berth in a shared cabin.
- flying in an ordinary economy seat
- by train+ferry via Nynäshamn–Gdańsk
- by train (almost) all the way via Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin (a considerable detour)
- (only part of the year) by train-on-ferry via Malmö and Berlin (Berlin Night Express)
Which one is the most ecological?
Best Answer
Comparing aeroplanes and trains shows that aeroplanes are very much the least ecologically friendly mode of transport. As an example from http://www.seat61.com/CO2flights.htm:
A site which has some limited data comparing plane, train and car+ferry gives us the following data, but I would assume that the car emissions skew the numbers somewhat, which leads me to believe that the ferry could be the lowest impact:
Caveat: these only take CO2 into account, and there are many other ways transport impacts the environment.
Pictures about "Environmental impact of ferries"
Is a ferry environmentally friendly?
Ferry companies have done much to clean up their act in terms of waste disposal and engine pollution, and the sheer numbers of passengers on a conventional cross-channel ferry mean that emissions per person will be low, and as many piggy back on freight services your actual carbon footprint is likely to be minimal.Do ferries cause pollution?
Ferries accounted for 23% of SOx emissions, 2% of PM emissions, 13% of hy- drocarbon (HC) emissions, and 8% of NOx emissions. A more focused study by Farrell and Glick examined the emissions impacts of using compressed natural gas (CNG) as a marine fuel.What is the carbon footprint of a ferry?
The average emissions factor used in this calculator for ferry trips is 170 g CO2 per passenger kilometre and this refers to \u201cnormal\u201d ferries \u2013 not high speed ferries. This figure is based on a study made by Jonas \xc5kerman (2012).Are ferries carbon efficient?
Here is the reply in full: As you are clearly aware from your question carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming and any form of transport that burns fossil fuel emits CO2. Nonetheless, ferries overall are more CO2 efficient than many forms of transport.UK: Warnings over environmental impact of disposable masks
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Images: Denniz Futalan, Denniz Futalan, Abraham Ruiz, Rodolfo Clix