Green development of the maritime industry: Overview, perspectives, and future research opportunities

Abstract

Maritime industry is the artery of the global economy since it carries around 90% of the volume of global trade. However, the fierce environmental problems associated with human activities and economic development cannot be neglected. To systematically analyze the research status and development trend of the maritime industry, this paper collects and reviews literature from Elsevier ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases related to green shipping management and green port construction. Future research directions are presented based on the analysis. The results show that green shipping management focus on solving practical emission reduction problems. Most work of green port construction establish mathematical optimization models aiming at minimizing total operation costs or maximizing profits. Designing efficient algorithms is a research hotspot in operation management. By comparing the technical measures, operational strategy, and market-based measures, we found technical innovation is the ultimate way for the maritime industry to realize net zero-emission. Support from governments and organizations is the insurance of green development. Future research perspectives include adopting high-tech technologies such as blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligent to improve operation efficiency and reduce emissions, providing more accurate suggestions for constructing green and smart ports, proposing multi-objective optimization models and highlighting the environmental target. This research can improve the existing theoretical frameworks and provide several future research directions for academia and practitioners.