Principle 1

Assessment of climate alignment

Under the Sea Cargo Charter, signatories will calculate the climate alignment of their chartering activities relative to established decarbonisation trajectories.

PRINCIPLE

“We will annually assess climate alignment in line with the Technical Guidance for all chartering activities.”

OUR COMMITMENT
Signatories will, on an annual basis, calculate the GHG emissions intensity and total GHG emissions, and will assess climate alignment (emissions intensity relative to established decarbonisation trajectories) of their chartering activities. This requirement takes effect for each signatory in the following calendar year after the calendar year in which it became a signatory.

Assessing climate alignment
The Sea Cargo Charter uses emissions intensity relative to established decarbonisation trajectories to measure climate alignment.

Climate alignment is defined as the degree to which voyage emissions intensity of a vessel category is in line with a decarbonisation trajectory that meets the IMO ambition of reaching net-zero GHG emissions by or around 2050, with interim checkpoints in 2030 and 2040.

The Sea Cargo Charter relies specifically on the Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI) as the emissions intensity metric, which produces the closest measure of the vessel’s true emissions intensity in operation, to a high level of granularity. The EEOI uses the parameters of fuel consumption, the GHG emission factor for each fuel type, distance travelled while laden with transported cargo, and amount of cargo transported over given voyage.

What is a decarbonisation trajectory?
A decarbonisation trajectory is a representation of how many grams of CO2e can be emitted to move one tonne of goods one nautical mile over a time horizon. To assess climate alignment of a voyage, the emissions intensity is compared with the decarbonisation trajectory for its respective ship type and size class.

Standard decarbonisation trajectories are produced by the Secretariat of the Sea Cargo Charter for each ship type and size class.

Learn more about Assessment in the Technical Guidance