An operational activity‐based method to estimate CO2 emissions from container shipping considering empty container repositioning

This paper develops an operational activity‐based method to estimate CO2 emissions from container shipping in contrasts to the traditional aggregated activity‐based method. Two case studies investigate the impacts of empty container repositioning policies and port handling capacity on CO2 emission index. The results show that the aggregated method could well overestimate CO2 emissions and the operational activity‐based method is more appropriate. The paper also demonstrates that high port‐handling capacity and efficient empty container repositioning could reduce CO2 emissions in seaborne container transportation.