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DEHAM GRPIR
Industrial machinery

Hamburg to Athens freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped Hamburg (DEHAM) to Athens (GRPIR) by sea emits 40.5 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 1,538.5 kg — roughly 38x the sea number.

Lane noteNorthern-to-Southern Europe lane — sea via Gibraltar is the bulk option but road and rail are real competitors at ~2,300 km overland. Rail electrification across the Brenner makes the train ~80% lower CO2 than the truck on this corridor.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 2,000-5,000 TEU

40.5
kg CO2e
Distance
5,400 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 5,400 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 5,000-8,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Road freight

40t articulated truck, diesel

142.6
kg CO2e
Distance
2,300 km
Factor (WTW)
62 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 2,300 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 articulated heavy truck, diesel, 60% load factor (WTW)

Rail freight

Electric intermodal rail

46.8
kg CO2e
Distance
2,600 km
Factor (WTW)
18 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 2,600 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 European electrified intermodal rail (WTW)

Air freight

Short-haul belly cargo

1,538.5
kg CO2e
Distance
1,810 km
Factor (WTW)
850 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 1,810 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 short-haul belly cargo (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Hamburg to Athens lane, air freight emits about 38 times more CO2e per tonne than sea freight at GLEC v3.2 defaults. The gap is driven by the WTW factor difference between long-haul belly cargo (850 g CO2e/tkm) and a Container ship 2,000-5,000 TEU (7.5 g CO2e/tkm), partly offset by the shorter great-circle air routing.

Where rail is viable on this lane, it sits between sea and road — see the per-mode card above for the exact split.

Try this in the calculator

These numbers are GLEC v3.2 defaults at 1 tonne. Change weight, vessel class, or load factor in the calculator and see the per-mode CO2e update under ISO 14083:2023 data quality tiers.

Methodology references

Need primary-data emissions for Hamburg to Athens?

The EcoFreight API ingests AIS, bunker delivery notes, and shipment manifests to return ISO 14083 Tier 3 primary-data numbers for the same lane. Free tier covers 1,000 calculations per month.