<title>Abstract</title> Shifting cargo from land‐based modes to maritime transport has been a prioritized policy in many policy papers to make transport more environmental friendly. Traditional calculations of emissions per transport capacity unit have supported this. However, maritime transport may stand to...

<italic>The comparative superiority of shipping services with respect to atmospheric emissions per ton-km is beyond debate in the case of deep sea and bulk operations. The case for short sea shipping in a setting with small consignments and frequent port-calls needs to be demonstrated relative to road...</italic>

Maritime transport is regarded the most environmentally friendly mode of transport in many policy papers and has received a lot of government support for moving cargo transports from road to sea. Most assessments of energy use and related carbon emissions in mode-choice settings have been based...