The impact of shipping emissions on urban air quality in Europe – A port/city analysis

This article presents results from a modelling study carried out to assess the influence that shipping emissions have on the air quality in European port cities. Using a 3-D chemical transport model (LOTOS-EUROS) and its source apportionment capabilities, the contribution of international and inland shipping emissions to atmospheric air pollutant concentrations in 19 European port cities is examined.

In the emission set used in the study, the shipping emissions on seas are derived from Automatic Identification System (AIS) data of all ships sailing in the geographic domain of the calculations. These are considered as more robust compared to the emissions reported by Member States to the European Environment Agency (EEA) as a result of the restrictive definition of maritime emissions in the national inventories which do not include any shipping emissions outside the territorial waters of the Member States.

The results show that international shipping contributes significantly to NO₂ concentrations on average over Europe (~18%), while locally in the seaports, the contribution is even higher (e.g. up to 60% in Rotterdam). The contribution remains significant in all cities located near seaports and, in many cases, international shipping is the dominant contributing source. In contrast, inland shipping generally has a low influence on NO₂ concentrations, with only a few exceptions (i.e. Rotterdam, Amsterdam). The contribution of shipping emissions for other pollutants is lower but still noteworthy (11% for SO₂, 2.5–5% for PM_2.5/PM₁₀ on average over Europe).