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Ninety percent of everything? Recalibrating the environmental impact of shipping, between ‘too big to fail' and ‘too small to matter'

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Non-technical summary Two common myths shape thinking about shipping and oceans. First, ships transport nearly everything we consume. Second, we live on planet ocean, not planet earth. Although each claim is, in one sense, correct, each is also misleading. Ships transport 80-90% of international trade (by weight), they transport only 10.8% of the economy's material footprint. Although the ocean covers 71% of the planet's surface, it makes up only 0.12% of its volume. This article queries these widely accepted numbers. Not to ‘correct’ them but to highlight the need to question the common myths that all too often guide environmental intervention. Technical summary Ships transport 90% of everything. The planet is 71% ocean. Environmentalists reference these statistics when they advocate ‘buying local’ to reduce shipping's environmental footprint. The shipping industry references them to argue that the industry is ‘too big to fail’ and therefore should not be overly burdened by environmental regulations; furthermore, shipping's emissions are said to be ‘too small to matter,’ considering the role the industry plays in enabling globalised consumer capitalism. Yet, this article shows that ships transport only about 10.8% of everything (by material footprint) and the planet is only 0.12% ocean (by volume). This suggests that we should employ the 90% and 71% figures with caution. Evidence demonstrates that environmental policy derived from crude quantification of an industry's significance can have unintended, and at times unwanted, consequences for the world's economy and, crucially, the planet's environment. Although we do not question the global significance of either the ocean or maritime transport, we argue that for appeals to size and scale to be useful in generating ocean consciousness and guiding policy interventions they need to be questioned every time they are invoked. Social media summary Ships transport 80-90% of international trade, but only 11% of the economy's material footprint. This wide gap urges us to rethink common myths about the economy and the environment.

Source: Global Sustainability

DOI: 10.1017/sus.2025.10027

Authors: Christiaan De Beukelaer, Philip E. Steinberg

Institutions: The University of Melbourne, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Durham University

Language: English

Topic: Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,550