Environmental and Economic Analysis on Sailing from Taiwan through Arctic Passages

• Published in: Water
• Main Authors: Po-Hung Chen, Ta-Kang Liu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: arctic passages; CO 2 emissions; Europe sea route; Americas sea route; maritime pollution; Hydraulic engineering; TC1-978; Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes; TD201-500; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Northwest Passage; Global warming; Northeast Passage; Northwest passage
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/w14132099; https://doaj.org/article/730c30cc5472444783a8644398289cf0

Maritime transportation is a key means for Taiwan to transport the cargo in the global trade. Global warming has led to two new navigation channels for arctic passages, the Northeast Passage and Northwest Passage. Research has increasingly addressed the unknown economic costs of these passages, and the increase of navigational activity in the Arctic Ocean has also resulted in CO 2 emissions. Taiwan has one of the leading merchant fleets in the world; however, study on this aspect in Taiwan is not available. We use Port of Taipei, Taiwan as the starting place to compare the two arctic shipping routes and developed a model to determine the shipping costs and as well the CO 2 emission. The results showed that a voyage from the Port of Taipei to the Port of Rotterdam through the Northeast Passage would be 2107 nautical miles shorter than voyage along the current sea route to Europe but 2% to 3% costlier; CO 2 emissions would be 3% lower. Sailing to New York Harbor through the Northwest Passage would shorten voyages by 2459 nautical miles and reduce both costs and CO 2 emissions by 7%. Therefore, if tolls were lowered or sailing speeds increased, sailing through the Arctic Passages could be a great opportunity for shipping industries and enable Taiwan to develop its shipping economy while protecting the marine environment.