The Panama Canal Authority has announced enhancements to its Green Connection Environmental Recognition Programme, which aims to encourage the shipping industry to mitigate the environmental impact of their operations.

The initiative is an incentive-based system that includes the Green Connection Award, the Environmental Premium Ranking and the Emissions Calculator.

In a statement issued yesterday (20 May), the Panama Canal Authority said that, starting from September, the Emissions Calculator will feature georeferenced data to ‘improve the quality and precision of the carbon emissions data of vessels transiting the Canal’. The authority said that the tool will give customers a ‘clear insight’ into their carbon footprint to help ‘incentivise environmental stewardship and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG)’.

The Panama Canal Authority added: ‘The Environmental Premium Ranking will factor in the use of low-carbon fuels and environmentally conscious transit operations starting mid-September. This ranking affords customers with high environmental efficiency standards the opportunity to improve their position within the Panama Canal’s Customer Ranking System.’