SCROLL DOWN
What is sustainable shipping and how are we promoting it in Latin America?
The Institute of the Americas is one of the few organizations analyzing and working to reduce the ecological impacts of ships scrubber discharges in Latin America, and has been working for two years in the Baja California Peninsula with civil society, companies, and local governments to build capacity and raise awareness about this emerging environmental issue. With the help of partners, we are now expanding the scope of this work to promote the overall sustainability of maritime transport in the region by advocating for actions that reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint of vessels and ports alike. We are convinced these actions will help not only decarbonize the industry but also make it more competitive globally.
Given the global trends of decarbonization and the energy transition, sustainability is a competitive advantage—but will soon become the minimum requirement. Greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime transportation sector are expected to grow by almost 6 times what they are today by mid-century unless ambitious actions are taken, and actors along the supply chain are pressured to act by implementing energy efficiency measures, operational improvements, and making fuel choices to reduce their carbon footprint. Moreover, there is growing empirical evidence that maritime trade routes are being modified due to access to cleaner fuels, and in the future, the same will happen for access to ports with higher environmental standards—as green marine corridors gain traction. As such, sustainability will inevitably become a cornerstone of the industry’s competitiveness.
In this context and with the above objectives, the IOA has been invited to become a supporting partner of the Getting to Zero Coalition, which promotes the decarbonization of shipping internationally. Here, we will share our insights through their Latin America Taskforce. The IOA has also placed the issue of scrubbers on the agenda of international fora, such as the Our Oceans Conference, and is working with important regional stakeholders, such as the IMO’s Maritime Technology Cooperation Center (MTCC)- LATAM to identify and share best practices for ports and vessels. It has also become a strategic partner of the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) of the Organization of American States.
Landmark Reports About Sustainable Shipping
Descargas de los Residuos de los Depuradores: Normativas Hemisféricas
¿Cómo están regulando los países la contaminación marina del transporte marítimo? Este informe del Instituto de las Américas analiza las medidas de mitigación hemisféricas a las descargas de las aguas de lavado de los depuradores de los barcos, que contienen metales pesados y contribuyen a la acidificación del océano. Con más de 10 gigatoneladas de residuos vertidos al mar cada año, ¿qué soluciones pueden impulsar a la industria naviera hacia un futuro más sustentable?
En 2020, la Organización Marítima Internacional (OMI) de la ONU impuso un límite de 0.5% en el contenido de azufre de los combustibles marinos, con el propósito de reducir la contaminación atmosférica del sector. Ya que los combustibles de bajo contenido de azufre son más costosos, muchas embarcaciones cumplen con esta regulación utilizando sistemas de limpieza de gases de escape, conocidos como depuradores, que utilizan agua de mar para filtrar dichos gases. Esto les permite seguir consumiendo combustibles pesados. Si bien los depuradores reducen los óxidos de azufre liberados a la atmósfera, sus aguas residuales, que son descargadas al océano sin mucho tratamiento previo, son hasta 100 veces más ácidas y contienen metales pesados, contaminando el mar, afectando la vida marina y contribuyendo a la acidificación oceánica.
A Hemispheric Analysis of Scrubber Washwater Discharge Regulations in Countries of the Americas
In an effort to reduce the maritime industry’s adverse environmental health impacts, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued a regulation in 2020 lowering the limit of allowable sulfur content in fuel. While this standard has been effective in reducing atmospheric pollution, it has had unintended consequences, such as transferring sulfur pollution from the air to the ocean. While some vessels choose to use Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (LSFO) or Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to comply, many others, in particular cruise ships, have elected to install Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems, also known as scrubbers. Scrubbers, which most often use seawater to neutralize ship’s exhaust gases, produce effluents that are released into the ocean, generally untreated, resulting in important environmental damage. In this paper, we review several cases of bans, restrictions, and special requirements that have been imposed at the national, regional, or port level across sites in the Americas, in an effort to understand the possible solutions to curb marine pollution from scrubbers, as this technology is increasingly adopted worldwide.
SEE FULL REPORT In English
Emissions and Effluents from Cruise Ships in the Bay of La Paz, Mexico
Cruise ships introduce polluting emissions into the atmosphere, even when at anchor. Additionally, a growing number of these vessels are retrofitted with Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems, also known as scrubbers, which discharge effluents into the ocean that are found to have negative impacts for the entire marine ecosystems. At different moments during the COVID-19 pandemic, several larger-than-average cruise ships anchored in the Bay of La Paz, Mexico, in the Gulf of California, for several weeks at a time. This study evaluates and quantifies air emissions and washwater effluents of 10 of those vessels between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021 in the La Paz Bay. We found that they released 108,760 tons of carbon dioxide, 330 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 2,800 tons of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. All of these cruise ships have scrubbers installed, and they discharged in aggregate more than 8 million m3 of scrubber washwater, equivalent to the capacity of 3,224 Olympic-size swimming pools.
VER REPORTE COMPLETO En Español
En Español
STORYMAP
In this interactive story, we follow the “Sapphire of the West”, a fictional but representative cruise ship, on a 5-day journey from San Diego to La Paz, Mexico, doing two other port of calls along the way, where we explore some of the regulations and technologies in place in every port of call as well as the environmental impacts the vessel has in each place—stemmed from scrubbers and fuel usage.
Webinars about sustainable shipping
View this 2-hour webinar
we organized with a few other partners to learn about the different impacts of vessels on the environment, from air emissions and contaminants to water pollution, as well as initiatives, regulations, and actions that aim to decrease such impacts.
View this 15-minute presentation
of EC2 Director Tania Miranda on the impact of scrubbers on the marine environment and potential solutions and regulations, in the context of the 2nd International Forum on the Blue Economy organized by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Pesca y Acuacultura.
View this 1-hr webinar
as part of the release of our report on hemispheric regulations to prevent ships’ scrubbers washwater pollution, with insights from Estela Luck, Panama Canal Authority and Allyson Browne, High Ambition Climate Collective, to understand what jurisdictions in the region are doing.
You can also find and download all the webinar’s speakers’ presentations here.
Events About Sustainable Shipping
October 29-30, 2026
La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Through the 3rd Forum on Sustainable Maritime Transport & Ports, we will bring together leaders from government, ports, shipping and logistics companies, technology and fuel providers, academia, and communities from Las Californias region to mobilize concrete actions towards a more sustainable shipping sector.
Mexico’s Sustainable Shipping Champions Initiative
On December 13, 2023, in Mexico City, the Mexican Chamber of Maritime Transportation Industry (CAMEINTRAM), the Institute of the Americas (IOA) and WWF Mexico announced the Mexico’s Champions for Sustainable Shipping initiative, which seeks to encourage all actors involved to emerge as global leaders in defense of true sustainable practices in the shipping and ports sectors, promoting their decarbonization and improving the well-being of communities and ecosystems alike. A full description of the initiative can be found in Spanish here, and a 1-page summary here.
Through this voluntary call to action, we seek to mobilize relevant stakeholders, particularly those in the private sector, to support transformational change towards a low-carbon and sustainable maritime and port industries in Mexico that minimize waste, environmental and health impacts, and promote a just transition.
After a 5-month process of review and consultations, we have published the operational rules of the initiative, which can be consulted in Spanish here.
We encourage everyone to learn more and join us!
Current members
Infographics & Video Content
Listen to this podcast interview with journalist Diego Ojeda (El Espectador Colombia) on taxing shipping emissions to drive sustainable fuels and tech.
Download this infographic representing the implementation measures for the international maritime decarbonization strategy, which are currently being negotiated at the IMO.
Download this map of the Americas that shows what regulations are in place to mitigate scrubbers’ washwater pollution in the region, in Spanish.
Look at this short informational video on how an ambitious levy on carbon emissions from shipping could benefit developing Latin American countries, such as Chile.
Heraldo USA TV interviews EC2 Director (in Spanish) on environment, competitiveness, and international commitments in Mexico’s Shipping and Ports sector.
You can also see this 4-minute video capsule in Spanish that explains the marine pollution scrubbers create. Ver cápsula en español
Publications, op-eds, blogs about shipping
Global shipping levy: the future of low carbon shipping?
As the UN prepares to finalize key climate laws for shipping, a unified Latin American stance on pricing ship emissions is crucial to securing a low-carbon future and economic prosperity for the region. The upcoming IMO negotiations will determine whether the industry adopts ambitious measures, such as a global carbon levy, to meet net-zero emissions targets by 2050.
READ FULL ARTICLE In English
LEER ARTÍCULO COMPLETO En Español
Un sector marítimo más competitivo y sustentable: un ganar-ganar para México
Read article part 1: La industria marítima en México , incluyendo a Pemex como proveedor de combustibles, perderá competitividad si no se suma a la transición energética.
Read article part 2: México no ha emitido normas para mermar la contaminación marina y disminuir el límite permitido de azufre en los combustibles de barcos.
a. Ratify MARPOL Annex VI and impose environmental standards that, while stricter, will help protect our natural capital (including a complete ban on scrubber discharges). They are already in place in many parts of the world and do not deter businesses.
b. Invest in the production and scaling of low-carbon technologies and fuel, using the resources and industries we already have -such as green hydrogen and green methanol. This includes not only the private sector but also ports and the government (and tools they have at their disposal, such as incentives), and most certainly the development bank.
c. Let’s collaborate with different stakeholders in the sector to promote early and voluntary action, and support ports in decarbonizing operations and improving their energy efficiency. This will make us an attractive destination, effectively increasing our competitiveness, for the growing number of companies and customers seeking to acquire and transport their goods in the most sustainable way possible. Demand-driven initiatives and pre-requisites are already coming down the pipeline.
Gobierno de México Publica Política Nacional Marítima de México con Lente Sustentable
LEER ARTÍCULO
Alliances
Getting to
Zero Coalition
The Coalition is a community of ambitious stakeholders from across the maritime, energy, infrastructure, and financial sectors, supported by key IGOs, knowledge partners and other stakeholders committed to the decarbonization of international shipping, and endorsed by several governments.
The ambition of the Getting to Zero Coalition is to have commercially viable zero-emission vessels operating along deep-sea trade routes by 2030, supported by the necessary infrastructure for scalable net zero-carbon energy sources including their production, distribution, storage, and bunkering. The Coalition is managed by the Global Maritime Forum, who initially founded the Coalition together with the World Economic Forum and Friends of Ocean Action.
The Institute of the Americas became a Getting to Zero Coalition supporting partner in August 2023.
Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP)
The Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) is the only permanent forum that brings together the National Port Authorities of the 34 Member Countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) and leaders of the maritime-port industry to promote the development of a secure, competitive, sustainable, and inclusive sector.
The Institute of the Americas became a CIP strategic partner in August 2023.
Getting to
Zero Coalition
The Coalition is a community of ambitious stakeholders from across the maritime, energy, infrastructure, and financial sectors, supported by key IGOs, knowledge partners and other stakeholders committed to the decarbonization of international shipping, and endorsed by several governments.
The ambition of the Getting to Zero Coalition is to have commercially viable zero-emission vessels operating along deep-sea trade routes by 2030, supported by the necessary infrastructure for scalable net zero-carbon energy sources including their production, distribution, storage, and bunkering. The Coalition is managed by the Global Maritime Forum, who initially founded the Coalition together with the World Economic Forum and Friends of Ocean Action.
The Institute of the Americas became a Getting to Zero Coalition supporting partner in August 2023.
Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP)
The Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) is the only permanent forum that brings together the National Port Authorities of the 34 Member Countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) and leaders of the maritime-port industry to promote the development of a secure, competitive, sustainable, and inclusive sector.
The Institute of the Americas became a CIP strategic partner in August 2023.
High Ambition Climate Collective
The High Ambition Climate Collective aims to bring together policymakers, industry partners and community leaders to build enduring power for climate action and system change at critical energy nexus points.
Partners
10111 North Torrey Pines Rd. UC San Diego
Campus -International Lane La Jolla, CA, 92037
Navigation map
info@iamericas.org
+1 858 453-5560
Join our Newsletter
Download Fact Sheet and check out our Privacy Policy
