River Shipping Generates Nearly One-Quarter of Global Maritime CO2 Emissions

A team led by Dawei Lu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science analyzed extensive ship-tracking logs covering over 12,000 inland waterways. By integrating vessel dimensions and engine classifications, they estimated that river and canal traffic released about 164 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2022, which equals 24.6% of the sector’s total emissions and approaches one percent of all human-generated emissions.

Remarkably, just 20 major routes—such as China’s Yangtze and Europe’s Rhine—were responsible for the majority of this output. Earlier emission assessments that concentrated on oceanic shipping failed to capture this hotspot effect. The authors argue that focusing mitigation efforts on these key waterways, for example by adopting low-carbon propulsion systems, could yield significant climate benefits. Their findings highlight an overlooked source of greenhouse gases within the broader maritime industry.