Danish Ship Finance pitches CII alternative

Danish Ship Finance has issued its latest biannual markets report in which it has called for the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) to be replaced with a voyage index that shows carbon intensity per voyage to allow performance to be evaluated and optimised. The voyage index would be powered by a global terminal heatmap that displays terminal efficiency.

CII, which came into force on January 1 this year, “fails to produce environmental benchmarks that allow vessel operations to be compared on an apples-to-apples basis”, according to Danish Ship Finance.

The emission benchmark for individual voyages would represent the average emission performance of similar vessels on a specific route. Over the course of a year, these individual benchmarks would be combined to create a vessel’s individual carbon budget. This budget would then serve as a standard against which the vessel’s actual emissions can be compared to assess its environmental performance.

CII has proven to be one of the IMO’s more controversial regulations, coming in for fierce criticism over the past year.

Germany’s largest dry bulk operator Oldendorff Carriers released a detailed study into CII’s flaws, weeks ahead of the regulation coming into force.

A non-eco ship, which would typically trade shorter voyages, will now be more likely to engage in longer haul voyages to attain the required CII, which is largely a function of CO2 emitted, cargo capacity and importantly, distance sailed, Gibson pointed out. Likewise, eco ships with much better CO2 emissions could be deployed on shorter voyages where, despite smaller distances, could still attain an acceptable CII rating due to their fuel efficiency.