COSCO

Shipping Company

Oct 8

COSCO aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 at the latest. They have defined their environmental objectives in five dimensions, including greenhouse gas emission reduction, energy upgrading, enhanced ballast water management, emission reduction and waste reduction. There seems to be no preference for action on alternative fuel options and details on COSCO’s decarbonization path remains relatively vague.

Technology Focus - Shore power, fuel preference unknown

No details on decarbonization pathway are provided

Sustainability Report

Download COSCO 2021

About COSCO

Since the 2021 sustainability report, COSCO aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 at the latest. They have defined their environmental objectives in five dimensions, including greenhouse gas emission reduction, energy upgrading, enhanced ballast water management, emission reduction and waste reduction.

There seems to be no preference for action on alternative fuel options and details on COSCO’s decarbonization path remains relatively vague. This is exemplified with generic statements throughout the 2021 sustainability report, where no quantifiable references are found on the exact transition path or intermediate targets, such as the following statement:

“We will implement the green and low-carbon transformation strategy, promote the smooth implementation of new shipbuilding and new energy projects in an orderly manner, and further clarify the implementation path of energy conservation and carbon reduction for the existing fleet to ensure industry leadership.”

Nevertheless, the risk analysis and materiality assessment provided in the 2021 sustainability report seem to indicate board-level awareness of decarbonization issues, and COSCO governance structure includes a sustainability committee.

Governance Structure

The general meeting of shareholders is our supreme decision-making body. The meeting consists of a board of directors, which is the decision-making body of COSCO, and a board of supervisors. COSCO’s operating management consists of a marketing and major account management committee, a risk management committee, a sustainability committee, a safety committee and a supplier management committee, who support the management of business risks and compliance.

The Sustainable Development Committee is responsible for reviewing climate change risks and guiding the formulation of risk response strategies. The Sustainable Development Enhancement Working Team is responsible for identifying and managing climate change risks.

Shore Power

According to the 2021 sustainability report, COSCO claims to actively promote the construction of show power supply facilities and has completed the renovation of the shore power facilities ‘of some ships’. Furthermore, COSCO aims to strengthen the renovation of shore power facilities of ships and promote port green development while ensuring transportation capacity during dock repair. No targets or tangible results are provided, except for the Los Angeles case study.

According to the data of California Air Resources Management Board (CARB), a total of 167 ships of COSCO have berthed at Port of Long Beach/Los Angeles Port/Oakland Port in 2021, and the compliance rate of shore power use was over 92%.