Senseible

Under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) rules, is a ship's voyage between two Indian ports domestic or international navigation?

Domestic. The IPCC 2006 Guidelines (Table 3.5.4) call a journey between two ports domestic if it departs and arrives in the same country, whatever the ship's flag, and international if it ends in another country. Each leg between two ports is judged on its own, so a call abroad makes that leg international.

The rule as the guide prints it

Table 3.5.4 sets criteria for defining international or domestic water-borne navigation, applying to each segment of a voyage calling at more than two ports. A journey between two ports that departs and arrives in the same country is domestic and not international. One that departs from one country and arrives in another is international and not domestic.

The guide says the definitions are independent of the nationality or flag of the carrier. A foreign-flag vessel carrying steel from Mundra to Kochi is on a domestic journey, and an Indian-flag vessel from Mundra to Colombo is on an international one.

Why segments, not whole voyages

The table's note says most shipping movement data are collected on individual trip segments, from one departure to the next arrival, and do not distinguish between different types of intermediate stop. Basing the split on segments is simpler and likely to reduce uncertainties. So a voyage with several calls is cut into legs, and each leg gets its own label.

Scopes are not part of this

The IPCC Guidelines are for national inventories and do not use Scopes. Our reading: the label only decides which of a country's two lines the fuel goes on, since the guide reports domestic and international navigation separately. The guide adds that emissions from international journeys are reported as an information item and are not included in national totals. A company still counts freight the way the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol does, by the leg, the mode and who pays, which the Category 4 pages here cover.

A pointer for fuel records

For national statistics, the guide notes that in most countries tax and customs dues are levied on bunkers for domestic consumption while bunkers for international consumption are free of such dues, and that domestic taxes may be used to tell the two apart when there is no direct data. Our reading: if you run vessels, a bunker invoice that shows duty is a clue to a domestic leg, but check it against the voyage record.

One more line worth knowing

Any fugitive emissions from carrying fossil fuels by tanker belong, in the guide's scheme, under fugitive emissions in its Chapter 4, not under navigation fuel.

A voyage cut into legs (example route)

The route is an example. The criteria are those of IPCC 2006, Volume 2, Table 3.5.4. A buyer's form may use its own definition, so read the question before you answer.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. It does not split sea legs into domestic and international or read voyage records.

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 3 Mobile Combustion

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Criteria and notes are from IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 3, Table 3.5.4 and the section on activity data; the route and the bunker-invoice pointer are our own examples and reading.