COP15 Discusses Sustainability in Shipping

The voice of the world shipping industry and its efforts to operate more sustainably and play its part in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be heard at COP 15. At an important side event on 11 December, spokesmen from all parts of this essential global industry will speak about this ongoing work, which focuses strongly on technical and operational improvements and which will, over time, dramatically reduce harmful emissions from world shipping.

This week’s side event, hosted by BIMCO and International Chamber of Shipping, will see the international shipping community also represented by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and INTERTANKO, together with Project Green Ship of the Future, reviewing the current situation and showing how the industry’s future technological solutions can help to combat climate change. BIMCO President Robert Lorenz-Meyer will chair this event.

As an international industry, with some 60,000 ships operating around the world, it is also believed that global regulation is essential, and that whatever may be decided in the present talks, its future implementation needs to be overseen by IMO, which has the proven mechanism to make such progress. It is also important that any future regulation must be “flag neutral” and globally applicable.

(www.bimco.org/COP15)