Carbon-Free Shipping and Shipping Carbon: Contracts in Context

This book focuses on the goal of carbon reduction from a private law perspective to explore how a new regulatory framework can be implemented in the shipping industry.

Compared with other sectors, the shipping industry has traditionally been labelled a 'slow mover' with regard to the sustainability agenda. However, new regulatory measures on carbon reductions at both international and EU levels require fundamentally new developments in the industry.

This book studies existing contractual provisions alongside the new contractual model clauses in charterparties and bills of lading developed to facilitate carbon reductions. It considers how these clauses should be interpreted, whether they will transform traditional shipping contracts into more collaborative contracts, and how the carbon clauses will interact with other clauses in the contract and with other contracts in the supply chain. The contractual analysis is considered in context, reflecting on enforcement issues, such as Port State Control (PSC), the Poseidon Principles, and through climate change litigation. The book also analyses the related topic of shipping contracts for carbon storage as a necessary means for meeting carbon reduction targets.

The book paves the way for understanding how core shipping contracts can work in this new context and the extent to which the new types of clauses will profoundly transform contracts.

It presents contributions by experienced and younger academics and practitioners from European, Scandinavian and Asian legal systems.