Advancing SSP-aligned scenarios of shipping toward 2050

Abstract

AbstractDeveloping comprehensive scenarios for the shipping sector has been a challenge for the Integrated Assessment Model (IAMs) community, influencing how attainable decarbonization is in the sector, and for Earth System Models (ESMs), impacting the climate contribution of shipping emissions. Here we present an approach to develop spatially explicit energy demand projections for shipping in alignment with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways framework and IAMs projections of global fossil fuel demand. Our results show that shipping could require between 14 and 20 EJ by 2050, corresponding to a 3% and 44% increase from 2018 for the SSP1-1.9 and SSP3-7.0 scenarios. Furthermore, the energy projections we present in this publication can be combined with different fuel mixes to derive emission inventories for climate modeling and, thus, improve our understanding of the various challenges in mitigating emissions for shipping. Through that, we aim to present a framework to incorporate detailed spatial shipping inventories and increase transparency for the scientific community.