Decarbonizing Maritime Corridors: How Carbon-Neutral Shipping Creates Environmental, Economic, and Social Impacts

There is increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector, with a specific focus on maritime transportation. Green maritime corridors, originally introduced in the Clydebank Declaration, represent a bottom-up approach for potentially effective decarbonization of maritime transportation. The premise of the research presented in this paper is that such initiatives, involving numerous actors in a logistics value chain, can have a more significant impact than merely reducing GHG emissions from sea transportation. In this paper, we present an impact assessment framework for decarbonizing maritime corridors in the context of RoPax (passenger and vehicle) shipping. We have identified 17 impacts, including the impacts on negative externalities, socio-economic impacts, impacts on transportation, and enabling effects on other industries in terms of the green transition. The Turku–Stockholm (Finland–Sweden) RoPax shipping corridor serves as a case study, considering a scenario in which one shipping line operator transitions from fossil LNG to e-methane as the primary fuel for the two ships operating on the route, along with the installation of batteries for power balance during voyages and while in the harbour area.