Speed limits for ships

[Etretat]

Just read this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-503...

Obviously a good thing to reduce the emissions from ships but not sure how it could be enforced.
Surely reducing the speed means the journeys take longer. Because the demand for the cargo carried will remain constant surely this would result in an increase in ships?
Have I got this wrong?

[SamR380]

Depends if the ships are always full I suppose.

[vaud]

Etretat said:

Obviously a good thing to reduce the emissions from ships but not sure how it could be enforced.

Ships are all satellite tracked. Easy to track current and average speed on any given leg.

e.g. https://www.myshiptracking.com/

[Earthdweller]

I’d have thought that they already travel at the most economical speed

Going faster or slower doesn’t automatically mean less fuel/emissions

[vaud]

Earthdweller said:

I’d have thought that they already travel at the most economical speed

Going faster or slower doesn’t automatically mean less fuel/emissions

Quite a detailed paper here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...

[CambsBill]

This already started to a limited extent a few years ago, as the shipping companies tried to cut their fuel costs.

In theory it's a no-brainer, given that bunker fuel is one of the dirtiest around. However, it would require more ships to move the same tonnage of freight and there would have to be some complicated load planning done to allow for the fact that a significant number of containers carry perishable goods. for example.