The sustainability of international shipping involves not only emissions reduction and energy efficiency, but also institutional quality, transparency, and policy enforcement. This study examines the relationship between corruption perceptions and environmental governance to highlight the institutional conditions required for sustainable development in shipping. Using international data, the empirical analysis investigates the link between the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the CPIA environmental sustainability index, supplemented by environmental expenditure and maritime connectivity indices. The methodology combines descriptive statistics, two-way fixed-effects panel models, and network analysis based on shipping connectivity. Results reveal a statistically significant positive correlation between environmental institutional quality and the CPI, where higher CPI values reflect lower perceived corruption. This relationship persists in fixed-effects models and remains stable across alternative sensitivity specifications. Furthermore, network analysis indicates that institutional and environmental performance varies with a country’s position in the global shipping network. Rather than proving causality, these findings demonstrate a consistent empirical correlation between institutional quality, corruption perceptions, and environmental governance. Consequently, the study contends that sustainable shipping must account for institutional implementation capacity alongside technological transformations.
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Stavroulakis et al. (2026) studied this question.
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