Greening the Sea

Abstract

Green Shipping Corridors, initiated in 2021, demonstrate a growing awareness among port and shipping stakeholders that the oceans and seas are more than blank spaces for industrial processes that don’t find a place on land (Couling & Hein, 2018). Monitoring websites, like windy.com, visualize open access data, including on NO2 and SO2 air pollution. They highlight the continuity of air pollution along sea and land corridors, and reveal the densification of pollution in and around ports and along coasts. Green Shipping Corridors are thus a much-needed attempt to address maritime pollution and to create more sustainable transportation methods, both on land and at sea. Control of landside pollution is a task for national, regional and more local governance, but greening the seaside is much more difficult because of the mix at play of national jurisdiction zones and large areas under international law. Green Shipping Corridors and other practices for improving ocean health raise questions about how to embed these initiatives in meaningful international governance, controllable policies, and spatial planning that includes the sea. With the horizon of 2050, we need to clearly establish goals, timelines and impact indicators. What governance structures, tools, competitive incentives and control mechanisms do we need to green the sea? How will we assess the impact of these green corridors? […]