Who are we?
This is collaborative project funded both by the UK Research Councils and by industry.
The LCS involves five UK universities: University College London (UCL), Newcastle, Hull, Strathclyde and Plymouth.
In addition, the LCS includes 15 industry and government partners, including: ship operators, designers, builders, technologists, brokers, classification societies, NGOs, and shipping industry clubs. This breadth of stakeholders ensures that the work of the LCS is truly representative of industry characteristics and challenges.
What do we do?
Broadly, LCS is identifying the best strategies for reducing carbon emissions of ships and ports. This work is being split between six different work packages, as listed in the "About LCS" section.
Eack work package will cover a specific topic in depth. These range from shipping economics, to the mapping of transport routes, to understanding the energy use on ships as they more. The aim is to build a holistic understanding of the shipping sector, and how it functions technically, operationally and economically.
These insights will then be used to build a holistic computer model of the industry as a whole. By quantifying key relationships and costs, this model will integrate the work packages and so quantify global shipping activity. It will then be validated against historical data and used to predict the shape of the industry in future. Possible scenarios - regulatory, fiscal, and economic - will be fed into the model and used to calculate the costs and impacts of reducing CO2.
While the focus of LCS is global, specific case studies from the UK will be used, and UK shipping will be an area of particular attention.
Why do we do it?
The LCS consortium has been established in response to three key concerns.
1. Climate change
It is estimated that shipping currently accounts for around 3% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. What's more, these emissions are expected to triple by 2050 in a business-as-usual scenario. In order to prevent dangerous levels of climate change, global CO2 emissions will need to drop by 80% by 2050. How can shipping play its part?
2. Oil prices
Ships transport over 90% of the UK's imports and exports. What's more, shipping is a key part of wider transport networks both inside and outside the UK. The industry currently employs over 200,000 people. How will increases in fuel costs affect the number and types of shipping that takes place? How will cap-and-trade schemes impact fuel costs? What opportunities will this bring?
3. Regulation
International shipping could soon be regulated for its carbon dioxide emissions. This regulation could come from multiple sources: not just the IMO, but also from the European Union. What are the potential impacts of regulation, how should it develop, and how should it be implemented?
