Goods are transported long distances around Australia using ships, trains and road transport. One of these forms of transport is more climate friendly than the others.

When it comes to transporting goods and producing the least amount of greenhouse gases, ships win hands down. While ships transport about 28% of the long distance freight around Australia, it only produces 9.6% of the combined greenhouse gases. Long haulage road transport has very high carbon dioxide emissions compared with ships. Also the carbon dioxide emissions from ships have been going down, while the emissions from road transport have been greatly increasing.

New ships are about 30% more fuel efficient than older ships. The engines in older ships can be modified to make them up to 20% more fuel efficient. So in the future ships will produce even less greenhouse gases.