Analysis of Influencing Factors of Ship Operational Energy Efficiency

The international shipping industry is facing with increasingly strict emission regulations and depressed market; lowering the cost and increasing the efficiency is becoming a universal practice. For a long time, global community and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have been closely working together, a list of regulations and solutions are worked out; in the meantime, many energy efficiency improvement methods are proposed. In this study, global efforts in tackling climate change are summarized using a timeline approach, which includes the important outcomes of the United Nations Climate Change Conference and the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting. Then, aiming at the energy efficiency operational indicator proposed by the IMO, the mechanism analysis method is used to summarize the influencing factors of the ship's energy efficiency. Last, these influencing factors are analyzed from different perspectives. This study provides a basis for the requirement analysis of the ship energy efficiency monitoring system and also benefits in working out energy efficiency improvement measures for the operational ships.