Several of the world’s largest shipping operators have joined forces this week as part of a major initiative designed to map out a more environmentally sustainable future for the industry.
Maersk Line, Gearbulk and BP Shipping have joined with Lloyd’s Register, ABN Amro, Forum for the Future and WWF to form the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI), an industry-wide project designed to identify the environmental challenges and opportunities the sector will face over the next 30 years.
Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Sam Kimmins, principal sustainability adviser at Forum for the Future, said the research project would aim to identify long-term solutions to issues such as shipping’s carbon footprint, the environmental impact of ship breaking and the rising incidence of piracy.
“The aim is to look beyond the next wave of legislation and address what the shipping industry needs to do up to 2040 to become more sustainable,” he said.
The group will initially undertake a report detailing the “case for action”, which is expected to look at the environmental impact of shipping and identify the barriers to reform, such as the labyrinthine ownership structure of many fleets that serve to discourage investment in fuel efficiency improvements.
Kimmins said the report would be presented at a meeting next May, at which point the group will begin work on an action plan detailing the technologies and policies that the sector should embrace over the coming decades.
Jacob Sterling, head of climate and environment in Maersk Line, said the action plan should help to secure the long-term future of an industry that is thought to account for about three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Climate change is a huge challenge for all, and we believe that shipping is not only part of the problem, we can also be part of the solution,” he said. ” We hope that the SSI will deliver an action plan that can strengthen the role of the shipping industry in shaping a low-carbon future.”
The formation of the group comes at a critical time for the shipping industry as the International Maritime Organisation prepares to submit recommendations to the UN ahead of the key climate change summit in Cancun later this year, detailing how the sector should be included in any new international climate change deal.
The sector is under pressure to adopt some sort of regulatory mechanism for curbing carbon emissions with a wide range of proposals on the table, including a tax on bunker fuel, a carbon levy on shipping firms and the introduction of a global emissions cap-and-trade scheme for the industry.
