Among the largest listed shipping companies in the world, China’s state-run giant Cosco has been branded the line doing the least to cut its carbon footprint, while Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) narrowly beat Denmark’s Maersk as the most proactive player in terms of its green policies, according to a new report out today.
The report has been published from the environmental non-profit and investment research provider CDP and ranks 18 of the largest publicly listed shipping companies, representing $62bn of market capitalisation, on business readiness for a low-carbon transition.
Among findings in the report, it was noted that the shipping sector has poor rates of disclosure – only five of the 18 companies completed CDP’s 2018 climate change questionnaire, and only four are official supporters of Mark Carney’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The report also noted that board level oversight of climate issues is very low compared to other sectors. Only three companies have a formal climate committee at board level.
Other interesting highlights from the report include data that shows container transport is the most emissions intensive shipping subsector but has achieved the highest emission reductions across the sub-sectors, on average reducing by 5.3% between 2012 and 2017.
Emissions from the bulk and tanker divisions have stagnated, CDP stated, with emission intensities from both sectors increasing 1% and 0.5% on average over the same period.
Cosco declined to comment when contacted by Splash today.
