The shipping industry pollutes as much annually as all of America’s coal plants combined. And if international shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest producer of climate pollution globally, belching out almost 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
The good news? Congress has introduced the Clean Shipping Act, which sets a clear, bold path to achieving zero-emission shipping in the United States by 2040 and eliminating in-port ship emissions by 2030.
Cargo ships burn the world’s dirtiest fuel, and their emissions contribute to more than 6 million cases of childhood asthma and hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. Shipping pollution is also an environmental justice issue. The devastating health impacts of the toxic air pollution at ports around the country fall disproportionately on the Black, Brown and working-class communities surrounding them.
There are actionable steps to meet our climate and justice goals and protect our ocean and the communities and wildlife that depend on it—and it all starts with passing the Clean Shipping Act.