Navalyze · Market view

EU shipping emissions, 2021

Every ship over 5,000 GT calling at EU and EEA ports reports its fuel and emissions to THETIS-MRV. This view reads all 12,485 public reports for 2021. The technical view shows how ships perform; the commercial view puts a price on it through the EU Emissions Trading System.

The 2021 public files name ships but not the companies managing them, and shipping entered the EU ETS in 2024. This year is therefore compared ship by ship, without company or allowance figures.

The year at a glance

CO₂ emitted

126.8 Mt

−2.2% on 2020

Ships reporting

12,485

12,485 reports, 0 part-year

Fuel burned

40.7 Mt

−2.2% on 2020

Distance sailed

311 million nm

Ships in the benchmark, derived from CO₂ per mile

Ships burning LNG

321

+4.9% on 2020

CO₂ at berth

6.3%

Share of all CO₂ emitted alongside in port

Emissions over time

All reporting years on one axis. The selected year is highlighted.

200 Mt150 Mt100 Mt50 Mt0 Mt

’182018’192019’202020’212021’222022’232023’242024’252025

Show as table

Year	Reports	Ships	CO₂	Allowances due
2018	12,260	12,260	145.4 Mt	–
2019	12,420	12,420	147.3 Mt	–
2020	12,118	12,118	129.7 Mt	–
2021	12,485	12,485	126.8 Mt	–
2022	13,474	13,474	137.5 Mt	–
2023	12,829	12,829	128.6 Mt	–
2024	15,212	14,467	152.7 Mt	36.3 Mt
2025	18,946	17,871	157.7 Mt	62.9 Mt

Where the emissions sit

Container ships emit 32% of the total. Passenger segments weigh far more than their ship count suggests. Click a segment for its operators and detail.

Container40.8 Mt
Bulk carrier16.4 Mt
Oil tanker16.3 Mt
Ro-pax13.0 Mt
Chemical tanker8.9 Mt
LNG carrier6.8 Mt
General cargo6.3 Mt
Ro-ro5.5 Mt
Vehicle carrier4.1 Mt
Passenger2.5 Mt
Gas carrier (LPG)2.4 Mt
Reefer1.6 Mt
Con-ro1.3 Mt
Other1.0 Mt
Combination52 kt

Show as table

Segment	Reports	CO₂	Share	Allowances due	Median speed	Fuel/day
Container	1,859	40.8 Mt	32.2%	–	14.1 kn	62.8 t
Bulk carrier	3,841	16.4 Mt	12.9%	–	11.5 kn	25.1 t
Oil tanker	1,876	16.3 Mt	12.8%	–	10.7 kn	31.0 t
Ro-pax	392	13.0 Mt	10.2%	–	16.2 kn	64.8 t
Chemical tanker	1,401	8.9 Mt	7.0%	–	11.2 kn	22.0 t
LNG carrier	300	6.8 Mt	5.3%	–	14.6 kn	89.9 t
General cargo	1,262	6.3 Mt	5.0%	–	10.9 kn	14.3 t
Ro-ro	225	5.5 Mt	4.3%	–	14.8 kn	39.4 t
Vehicle carrier	469	4.1 Mt	3.2%	–	14.4 kn	36.0 t
Passenger	113	2.5 Mt	2.0%	–	11.4 kn	69.0 t
Gas carrier (LPG)	353	2.4 Mt	1.9%	–	13.1 kn	25.6 t
Reefer	160	1.6 Mt	1.2%	–	15.5 kn	31.0 t
Con-ro	64	1.3 Mt	1.0%	–	15.2 kn	48.6 t
Other	164	1.0 Mt	0.8%	–	11.2 kn	20.5 t
Combination	6	52 kt	0.0%	–	9.6 kn	21.3 t

How wide the performance gap is

Spread of CO₂ per transport work within each segment, on each segment's own basis (cargo, pax, volume or dwt). The box holds the middle half of the fleet, the line runs from the best 10% to the worst 10%.

How to read it. Take container ships: the median ship emits 17.9 g CO₂/t·nm. Half the fleet sits inside the box, between 0.7× and 1.8× of that. The best 10% are below 0.4×, the worst 10% above 2.8×. Left of the median is better. The longer the bar, the bigger the gap between the best and worst ships in that segment.

0.25×0.5×median2×4×Median

Container17.9 g CO₂/t·nm
Bulk carrier8.57 g CO₂/t·nm
Oil tanker8.86 g CO₂/t·nm
Ro-pax (pax)815 g CO₂/pax·nm
Ro-pax (freight)226 g CO₂/t·nm freight
Chemical tanker16.7 g CO₂/t·nm
LNG carrier10.5 g CO₂/m³·nm
General cargo22.7 g CO₂/dwt·nm
Ro-ro104 g CO₂/t·nm
Vehicle carrier59.6 g CO₂/t·nm
Passenger1,310 g CO₂/pax·nm
Gas carrier (LPG)46.9 g CO₂/t·nm
Reefer55 g CO₂/t·nm
Con-ro8.1 g CO₂/m³·nm

Much of this spread is ship size, not operation: bigger ships move a tonne of cargo for less fuel. The next chart separates the two for container ships.

Show as table

Segment	Metric	Best 10%	Q1	Median	Q3	Worst 10%	Ships
Container	g CO₂/t·nm	7.81	11.65	17.90	31.46	49.96	1,781
Bulk carrier	g CO₂/t·nm	5.28	6.66	8.57	11.24	15.39	3,466
Oil tanker	g CO₂/t·nm	4.75	6.20	8.86	14.26	25.20	1,789
Ro-pax (pax)	g CO₂/pax·nm	66.71	198.64	815.19	1,261.98	2,181.42	377
Ro-pax (freight)	g CO₂/t·nm freight	57.62	107.17	226.00	641.13	1,142.65	377
Chemical tanker	g CO₂/t·nm	9.56	12.03	16.69	26.88	41.03	1,343
LNG carrier	g CO₂/m³·nm	5.77	7.39	10.46	13.95	20.28	289
General cargo	g CO₂/dwt·nm	10.72	16.77	22.70	29.55	41.63	1,142
Ro-ro	g CO₂/t·nm	53.39	67.75	103.64	178.53	277.12	219
Vehicle carrier	g CO₂/t·nm	40.90	47.97	59.57	82.06	121.99	459
Passenger	g CO₂/pax·nm	714.52	920.42	1,314.88	2,426.94	3,700.45	100
Gas carrier (LPG)	g CO₂/t·nm	16.77	26.25	46.91	87.92	122.58	323
Reefer	g CO₂/t·nm	36.26	45.43	54.99	67.43	85.08	158
Con-ro	g CO₂/m³·nm	4.99	6.53	8.10	10.03	59.77	62

Size explains most of the container gap

Container ships grouped by the average cargo they carried (derived from CO₂ per mile and per tonne-mile). Within a band the spread narrows sharply.

<10k t47.1 g
10–30k t23.3 g
30–60k t16.0 g
60–100k t11.6 g
>100k t6.9 g

Show as table

Cargo band	Ships	Q1	Median	Q3	Speed	Fuel/day
<10k t	425	37.36	47.10	58.70	12.1 kn	24.4 t
10–30k t	444	19.70	23.28	27.99	13.6 kn	43.5 t
30–60k t	310	14.29	15.95	18.18	15.3 kn	77.3 t
60–100k t	337	10.23	11.55	12.93	15.4 kn	103.1 t
>100k t	265	6.12	6.91	8.70	14.7 kn	114.2 t

Efficiency trend by segment

Median CO₂ per transport work of each segment, indexed to 2018 = 100. Lower is better.

Container
Oil tanker
Bulk carrier
Ro-pax
LNG carrier
General cargo

6080100120

’182018’192019’202020’212021’222022’232023’242024’252025

Show as table

Year	Container	Oil tanker	Bulk carrier	Ro-pax	LNG carrier	General cargo
2018	20.22	8.86	8.50	728.92	10.92	24.89
2019	18.88	8.83	8.38	569.03	10.87	24.96
2020	17.58	9.03	8.24	750.91	10.71	24.50
2021	17.90	8.86	8.57	815.19	10.46	22.70
2022	19.13	8.51	8.71	626.32	10.38	21.57
2023	19.40	8.44	8.27	680.04	9.10	20.67
2024	17.52	8.06	8.09	546.68	7.39	19.25
2025	16.30	7.95	7.89	566.51	7.12	20.44

Note on 2025: from 2025 the EU MRV Regulation also covers general cargo ships of 400–5,000 GT and offshore ships from 400 GT. Small ships emit more CO₂ per tonne-mile, so to compare like with like the 2025 median for general cargo uses only the 1,199 of 2,706 ships that also reported in 2024, the last year of the old scope.

Fuel fingerprint: who burns LNG

Burning LNG lowers the CO₂ released per tonne of fuel. Ships whose ratio sits well below oil's 3.1 are counted here.

1,0007505002500

’182018’192019’202020’212021’222022’232023’242024’252025

In 2021, 243 of them were LNG carriers and 26 container ships.

Who verifies the reports

Accredited verifiers check every MRV report before it is published. Their share of all CO₂ and of all ships, by brand. Pick a segment above to see it per ship type.

Share of CO₂Share of ships

DNV33.1% / 27.3%
ABS17.1% / 17.1%
RINA11.7% / 7.6%
Lloyd's Register7.7% / 8.2%
Verifavia7.6% / 7.6%
ClassNK7.2% / 10.9%
Bureau Veritas5.3% / 7.0%
China Classification Society3.0% / 3.6%
Korean Register2.1% / 2.6%
EMICERT1.8% / 2.8%
10 others3.5% / 5.4%

How fuel is measured

Each ship's monitoring plan names one or more of the four MRV methods for measuring fuel and emissions.

A · Bunker delivery notes

49%

Fuel bought, corrected by tank soundings

B · Bunker tank monitoring

31%

Tank readings on board

C · Flow meters

35%

Meters on the fuel lines to engines and boilers

D · Direct measurement

CO₂ measured in the exhaust

Most common combinations

A44%
C23%
B19%
B + C9%
A + C2%
A + B2%
A + B + C1%
A + C + D0%

Share of 12,204 emission reports that name a method; a report can name several.

What we exclude, and why

Benchmarks use 11,584 full-year reports. Part-year reports (0, usually a change of company) and ships reporting no fuel (491) count towards totals only.
Each segment is measured by its own CO₂ per transport work: per passenger-mile for passenger ships, per cubic-metre-mile for LNG carriers and con-ros, per deadweight-mile for general cargo, per tonne-mile for the rest.
The worst 1% per segment and implausibly low values (under half the best 1%) are trimmed as reporting errors.
Distance, speed and cargo carried are derived from the published ratios; THETIS has no distance or deadweight column.
Allowances: not applicable before 2024. Offshore ships are excluded until 2027. Euro figures use the EUA price you set, default €75/t.
Source: EMSA THETIS-MRV public emission reports, mrv.emsa.europa.eu, checked weekly.