Environmental Responsibility

The primary environmental impacts of shipping are emissions and discharges. At sea and in port, these outputs are substantially all regulated and compliance is enforced across international, regional and local jurisdictions.

We recognise our responsibility to reduce our operations' impact on air, sea and land, and our Pacific Basin Management System is designed to measure and continually improve every aspect of fleet operations, including our environmental outputs.

Ambition

As a leading dry bulk ship owner and operator, Pacific Basin seeks to further improve our fleet scale, optimise our performance and offer flexible and reliable service while striving to decouple this from environmental damage. We take responsibility for decarbonising our fleet, managing our waste, marine discharges and resources consumption, ensuring our ships are primed for proper recycling and minimising our biodiversity impacts as we continue to grow our business.

Commitment to

Decarbonising our fleet

We target to become net zero by 2050 to reduce our impact on climate change by adopting technical and operational measures, preparing for market-based measures and supporting the development and deployment of green fuels and zero-emission vessels.

Minimising our environmental impact

We manage and operate our fleet and offices with a commitment to reducing our resource consumption, waste footprint and biodiversity impacts. We ensure that our older ships that we sell are primed for proper recycling at end of life.

Enhancing and optimising green & safe ship operations

We strive to adopt industry best practices and promote a culture of high standards to ensure environmentally-responsible and safe ship operations through continued investment in training, systems, procedures and technology.

Target Net Zero by 2050Target Our fleet will comprise only zero-emission vessels by 2050Target Reduce EEOI carbon intensity by 50% by 2030 compared to 2008Target Green fuel will make up 3% of our fuel mix by 2030Our Decarbonisation StrategyWe continue to adopt fuel-efficiency enhancements and practices to ensure that our conventionally-fuelled existing ships are well positioned to comply with applicable global and regional rules and to continue to trade for the foreseeable future. In parallel, we are collaborating and making preparations to achieve the longer-term goal of complete decarbonisation by transitioning to entirely new zero-emission-capable ships and fuels under developmentRoadmap to net zero by 20502021Net zero ambition launchedInvestigated future fuel alternativesDesigning methanol-enabled dual fuel Ultramax vesselInvesting in 1st generation methanol-enabled vessels Operating our first Ultramax ship fuelled by green methanolPB carbon intensity reduced by 50% compared to 2008 baselineGradual renewal of our fleet with modern, efficient second-hand ships and increasingly with newbuilding and second-hand ZEVsNet zero emissions from our fleet and across our business2022202420232028203020502030-2050 Gradually replace our oldest ships with modern, efficient second-hand ships No newbuildings until they are zero-emission capable Help develop the availability of green fuels for our sector Aim for green fuels to make up 3% of our fuel mix by 2030 Make vessel operations and deployment decisions that improve the carbon intensity of our activities, leveraging data and digital apps Continue to invest in innovative technological enhancements to improve the energy efficiency of our ships Expand emissions data sharing and dialogue to raise carbon footprint awareness among our customers and other stakeholders Harness data, digitalisation, innovation and collaboration to tackle decarbonisation and other ESG challenges Collaborate with partners to design and build methanol-capable ZEVs Target to operate our first ZEV well before 2030Fleet renewal and growth for energy eiciencyDevelopment of zero-emission vessels and fuelsSupporting green fuel availabilityCarbon-eicient operational measuresEnergy-eicient technology adoptionInformation-sharing and collaboration for excellence

IMO GHG Strategy

In 2018, IMO set a greenhouse gas reduction strategy with industry goals to:

  • reduce carbon intensity by 40% by 2030 and by 70% by 2050; and
  • to reduce total GHG emissions by half by 2050 (both relative to 2008)

These IMO goals are no longer adequately ambitious, and it is our hope that the IMO will tighten its targets to align with the Net Zero by 2050 goal promoted at the UN Climate Change Conference, which is designed to limit global warming to 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels.

Since 2021, our own carbon reduction target is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

In June 2021, IMO adopted global regulations to drive technical and operational measures to ensure annual improvements in the carbon efficiency of existing ships designed to achieve IMO’s current greenhouse gas reduction targets. These EEXI, SEEMP and CII rules took effect on 1 January 2023.

Tracking a Course to Net Zero by 2050

9.66 4%Grams CO2 per tonne-mile Carbon Intensity (EEOI)10.19.6620182019202020212022

Pursuing a 2050 net zero emissions target is key to improving the Group’s decarbonisation performance and the overall sustainability of our business. While our absolute emissions are likely to increase further as our core fleet grows, our average emissions per ship per unit of transport work done (our carbon intensity) continues to improve long term.

REDUCING OUR CO2 INTENSITY

Short and Long-term Goals

Our long-term target is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Based on this 2050 target, we expect to have reduced our EEOI carbon intensity to 6.7 by 2030, representing a reduction of over 50% compared to our 2008 baseline. This exceeds IMO’s target of a 40% reduction in CO2 per transport work over the same period.

Key Motivators

  • Fuel saving
  • Decarbonisation
  • Eliminating our climate impact
  • IMO regulations
  • EU rules

2022 Performance

Our fleet’s carbon intensity in 2022 decreased 4.4% to 9.66 grams of CO2 per tonne-mile, as calculated using the ship Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI) method. This was due to reduced fuel consumption per ship and a marginal increase in average tonne-miles performed by our ships, driven by 8% fewer sea days at 5% higher average operating speeds, and a slight increase in the average size of our ships.

Our fleet registered an AER carbon intensity of 6.07, representing a 3.3% decrease, reflecting reduced fuel consumption and a slight increase in the average size of our ships.

TARGETCarbon Intensity (EEOI)0 by 2050 (6.7 by 2030)Grams CO2 per tonne-mile1514.11050Our target ofnet zero by 20506.07AERWe aspire for our ships to achieve an AER rating of “C” or better from 2024 onwards, but we will prioritise EEOI with high laden-to-ballast utilisation while managing our AER to ensure CII complianceBased on our net zero emissions by 2050 target, we expect to reduce our carbon intensity to an EEOI of about 6.7 by 2030, which is over 50% less than our 2008 baseline20082022203020509.66EEOI

All of our 28 owned ships that are subject to Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) rules have attained an average EEDI of 4.74 grams of CO2 per tonne-nautical mile, which exceeds the average required EEDI of 7.87 grams of CO2 per tonne-mile. All of our owned ships are prepared for compliance with new EEXI rules in 2023/2024.

Tackling Environmental Responsibilities

We seek to minimise our impact on the environment from atmospheric emissions, resource consumption and marine discharges.

Our Decarbonisation Strategy

We continue to adopt fuel-efficiency enhancements and practices to ensure that our conventionally-fuelled existing ships are well positioned to comply with applicable global and regional rules and to continue to trade for the foreseeable future. In parallel, we are collaborating and making preparations to achieve the longer-term goal of complete decarbonisation by transitioning to entirely new zero-emission-capable ships and fuels under development

Carbon Emissions & Fuel Efficiency

  1. Maintaining our high laden-to-ballast ratio
    • Our ships are laden with cargo for over 90% of the time because our fleet uniformity and scale and our ship operating and cargo expertise enable us to optimally schedule and combine our ships and cargo for high laden utilisation. That is a significant advantage compared to similar ships in our segment which spend more time in ballast.
  2. Modernising our fleet by gradually trading up to younger, larger, more energy-efficient ships
    • We renew our fleet through our largely counter-cyclical acquisition of modern Japanese-built or designed second-hand vessels with fuel-efficient hull designs and machinery and the best designs for our trades.
    • We will not contract newbuildings until zero-emission-ready ships are available and commercially viable in our segments and the appropriate refuelling infrastructure is being built out globally
  3. Adoption of latest energy-efficient operating measures
    • Fuel-efficient voyage planning using the latest Continuous Weather Routing services
    • Reducing rudder movements and improving course-keeping using advanced self-tuning autopilot systems to automatically adapt to load and weather characteristics
    • Avoiding unnecessarily high engine torque in bad weather conditions using real-time propeller-curve displays
    • Improved trim and draft optimisation to reduce hull resistance
    • Optimising hull cleaning frequency (for reduced drag) using detailed analysis of vessels’ speed and fuel consumption performance over time
    • Computer-aided optimisation of cylinder lubrication and machinery overhaul intervals leading to reduced fuel consumption
    • Slow steaming at optimal operating speeds
  4. Adoption of latest energy-efficiency technologies on our ships
    • Fitting propeller boss cap fins, non hub-vortex propellers, rudder bulbs and Mewis ducts to improve propulsion hydrodynamics
    • Reshaping propellers for reduced fuel consumption and/or improved torque characteristics
    • Optimising combustion pressure by engine tuning
    • Applying anti-fouling paints over a larger hull area to reduce drag even when fully laden
    • Retrofitting LED lights throughout our ships’ accommodation blocks and engine rooms
  5. Supporting the development of potential zero-carbon fuels and vessels
    • We engage regularly with the classification societies, engine manufacturers, shipbuilders and other stakeholders who are more directly involved in new fuels and new propulsion R&D, and we also engage with other ship owners and operators who are similarly interested in tracking and contributing to this industry discussion with input from the user’s practical perspective.
    • We are members of the Getting to Zero Coalition of over 120 companies committed to exploring how to achieve the goal of developing and rolling out the first deep-sea zero-emission or carbon-neutral ships by 2030. Ammonia and methanol synthesised from green hydrogen are currently among the front-runners in a short list of potential fuels for shipping.
  6. Voluntarily offsetting our emissions with carbon credits
    • Despite all our initiatives to continually improve our carbon intensity, our operations will still generate carbon emissions for years to come. We wish to offset at least some of these unavoidable emissions and, in 2021, we launched our PB Carbon Neutral Voyage Programme for our customers. We have voluntarily and fully offset the carbon emissions from our global onshore operations in 2021. For more information about our PB Carbon Neutral Voyage Programme, please refer to our Sustainability Report.

For information on our management approach and initiatives addressing other air emissions, marine discharges and waste management, please refer to our Sustainability Report.

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