Ship Generated Exhaust Emissions and Their Externalities for Greece

Abstract

Amidst growing international awareness on the impact ship exhaust emissions on climate and air quality, the case of Greece is of particular interest because the dense ship traffic within the Greek seas directly imposes the impact of its exhaust emission pollutants (NOX, SO2 and PM) upon the highly populated, physically sensitive and culturally precious Greek coastline, as well as upon the land and seas of Greece in general, whereas the contribution of Greece in the global CO2 inventory at a time of climatic change awareness cannot be ignored. With regard to the shipping activity within the Greek seas, the utilization of the fuel-based methodology for domestic shipping and the activity-based methodology for international shipping shows that in 2008 the ship generated emissions of CO2, SO2, NOX and PM reached 7.4 million tons (7 million tons of CO2) and their externalities totaled 2.95 billion euro (155 million euro for CO2). Finally, the internalization of the emission externalities of domestic shipping was found to produce an increase of 12.96 and 2.71 euro per passenger and transported ton of cargo, respectively.