Skip to main content
USNYC USHOU
Chemicals

New York to Houston freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped New York (USNYC) to Houston (USHOU) by sea emits 24.8 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 1,938 kg — roughly 78x the sea number.

Lane noteUS East Coast to Gulf Coast short-sea — routing via the Florida Straits, 6-7 day sailings. Road and rail are dominant for time-sensitive cargo at ~2,600 km overland; sea wins for project cargo and bulk petrochemicals.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 3,000-8,000 TEU

24.8
kg CO2e
Distance
3,300 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 3,300 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 8,000-15,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Road freight

40t articulated truck, diesel

162.4
kg CO2e
Distance
2,620 km
Factor (WTW)
62 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 2,620 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 articulated heavy truck, diesel, 60% load factor (WTW)

Rail freight

Mixed-traction intermodal rail

77.8
kg CO2e
Distance
2,780 km
Factor (WTW)
28 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 2,780 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 mixed-traction intermodal rail (WTW)

Air freight

Short-haul belly cargo

1,938
kg CO2e
Distance
2,280 km
Factor (WTW)
850 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 2,280 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 short-haul belly cargo (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the New York to Houston lane, air freight emits about 78 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 3,000-8,000 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 New York to Houston?

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.