Decarbonising our domestic shipping fleet: The Pacific Blue Shipping Partnership
Peter Nuttall Micronesia Centre for Sustainable Transport This article was written in February 2020, a year ago since appearing on this blogsite The critical importance of sea transport to Pacific countries and its interrelationship to all levels of socio-economic development are widely recognised and documented. The sector currently has a range of challenges including the prevalence of old, inefficient and undermaintained vessels, and a lack of supporting modern infrastructure including ports, facilities for bunkering, ship building, maintenance, and repair. Existing vessels service and underpin micro-economies at the end of long and narrow operating routes, with the consequence that sea transport within and between Pacific countries is the most expensive per unit distance and per capita in the world. Transportation and mobility is a cross-cutting issue central to the sustainable development of Pacific Island countries. In the Pacific we do not have fast rail, concrete freeways and bi