Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash
Over the past few years, we have seen climate change really start to bite. Deadly cold snaps, crop-ruining droughts, heatwaves that pushed entire countries to the brink and record-setting global average temperatures. This sudden global warming is utterly unprecedented and far more extreme than any of our climate models ever predicted. So what’s going on? Well, a few studies have found that a recent change to shipping fuel standards to clean up the cargo industry might be to blame. However, this climate rabbit hole goes far deeper than just ships, as this could not only be the beginning of yet more sudden climate change but also a route to genuinely safe and effective geoengineering.
When I say sudden global warming over the past few years, I mean it. We haven’t just had bad luck with some extreme weather events. Take the graph below that has gone viral, shared by climate scientists and science communicators alike. This really is the year when climate change started to bite. But why?
This all starts with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). They are responsible for setting international standards for all types of vessels and regulating the marine industry. One of their greatest challenges is reducing the environmental impact of cargo ships. You see, these oceanic leviathans operate on razor-thin profit margins, so every cost-saving measure they can take makes a vast difference. As such, for decades, they have used bunker fuel, also known as Heavy Fuel Oil, to power their gigantic combustion engines. This fuel is effectively what is left after a refinery has extracted all the kerosene, diesel, petrol, bitumen and other useful elements from crude oil. HFO is really dirty, as all the impurities in the crude oil are effectively concentrated into it during the refining process. This, combined with its less-than-ideal burning dynamics, makes it a filthy and inefficient fuel to use in combustion engines. But as no one else wants it, HFO is incredibly cheap!
